Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Jul 23: In about two weeks from now, in all probability, a concrete decision will be taken to shift the main bus stand of the city to Pumpwell where the city corporation has acquired land for the same. If this happens, the current bus stand, which is wilting in a cramped space without any facilities, will get shifted to a state of the art bus stand befitting its smart city tag.

The service bus stand which was at Hampankatta earlier, and which was proposed to be shifted to Kottara, was finally shifted to make shift venue at the hockey ground of Nehru Maidan under pressure from bus operators on October 6, 1996. The current venue of bus stand suffers from lack of space and facilities, with only emergency works being undertaken to ward off critical situations. Earlier proposals to shift the bus stand to outskirts of the city had encountered stiff resistance from bus operators who were fearing about loss of revenue.

When the project began - file photos

The city roads need to be relieved of movement of heavy vehicles as number of vehicles has jumped nearly four fold from 1.2 lac in 1993-94 to four lac at present. About a hundred new vehicles get registered here daily and about 4,000 buses move about the city roads which include city buses, express buses, tourist buses, service buses and buses of a large number of educational institutions. The swelling number of vehicles has also given rise to parking problems in addition to traffic woes.

Although land by the side of national highway at Pumpwell was acquired long back, development works were not undertaken at a fast pace there. Currently, land filling work is in progress. Although it was planned to begin shifting of the bus stand on an experimental basis early this year by laying interlocks there, this plan did not materialize. A report on utilization of 7.3 acres of land currently available at Pumpwell and blue print of the proposed bus stand are ready. There are plans to execute it on private-public partnership basis and some private firms have reportedly shown interest. As the city mayor and deputy commissioner of the district have evinced interest now in shifting the bus stand, the proposal of having a well-equipped bus stand for the city might get much-needed momentum in a few days time from now.

One of the problems encountered for the new bus stand is objection from national highways department. National highway 66 passing by the side of the plot now chosen for bus stand is being widened from Nanthoor to Talapady and fly over is being built at Pumpwell. National highways department feels that traffic snarls will aggravate if the bus stand is built there at this stage.

Currently, discussions are on about the practicability of creating temporary facilities at Pumpwell and shifting of the bus stand there till a proper bus stand comes up there. MLA J R Lobo said that shifting of bus stand happens to be the need of the hour to handle dense traffic in the heart of the city and that there is likelihood of a decision being taken within the next two weeks once the discussions currently going on between different authorities get a proper and final shape.