Trial run for the bus priority lane along the Outer Ring Road between Tin Factory and Silk Board junction, will begin on November 1.
Commuters braving the traffic along Outer Ring Road in Bengaluru will have to wait another fortnight for the bus priority lane operations to begin. The bus priority lane was supposed to roll out on November 1. However, the city’s civic body – Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is pushing the launch date to November 15 citing rains. Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) Managing Director C Shikha told the media that due to heavy rains, the BBMP has not been able to complete infrastructure construction for the bus priority lane on time, The Hindu reported. The BMTC, along with BBMP said trial runs for the bus priority lane between Silk Board and Tin Factor would, however, be begin on Friday. Director Shikha said that the trial runs will continue till November 15. BBMP Commissioner BH Anil Kumar on Thursday said in a tweet that the trial run will be inaugurated on November 1. “The BBMP has created bus lanes to ease traffic congestion. Bus lanes have been marked out on ORR. I request the public to use BMTC buses and help ease congestion,” he said. Bus Priority Lane is a project launched by BBMP, BMTC, the Traffic Police and the Directorate of Urban Land Transport. Bus lanes are planned in the hope that buses which act as a mass transport system, get priority access over private transport especially two-wheelers and in the process motivate people to ditch their own vehicles. This in turn is expected to reduce overall congestion in the city. The pilot project was set to begin on Friday and the chosen route was Outer Ring Road between Tin Factory in KR Puram and Silk Board junction. The move for bus priority lanes also comes at a time when the daily ridership of BMTC has steadily fallen over the years, from 51.3 lakh in 2014-15 to 36 lakh in 2018-19. At the same time, the length of cancelled routes increased almost 200% over four years, from 241.6 lakh km in 2013-14 to 717.9 lakh km in 2017-18. Sources in the Traffic Police Department told TNM that only vehicles with more than three passengers will be allowed in these lanes and violators will be penalised for violating lane discipline. Incidentally, a decade ago, a similar plan was proposed by authorities between Central Silk Board and Hebbal, but the project never took off. Since then, citizen groups have demanded that these bus-only lanes be created wherever practically feasible along with other incentives for public transport. BMTC has deployed 50 people to make sure that buses stay in the designated lane. The BMTC has also installed 70 cameras on buses to help identify motorists who violate rules and use the lane designated for buses only. This footage will be submitted to the Traffic Police, who will initiate action against violators, Times of India reported.
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