Bengaluru: With roads near city schools choked with traffic during the school opening and closing hours, an officer of the state transport department has suggested that the solution lies in better coordination between parents and school managements. He said the students should not be let out of schools in batches as this leads to traffic jams. “Parents and private vans are forced to wait in front of the gates to pick up the children and this causes traffic jams,” he said.
The traffic police and the transport department seem to have now thrashed out a solution, which they promise to announce soon. Long suffering commuters can only hope for some relief from this problem. Commuters using roads near schools often complain of school vans and cars, bikes and autos ferrying children are parked haphazardly with no concern for the oncoming traffic. They point out that the resulting chaos leads to traffic jams and want a permanent solution to the problem.
However, the school managements blame private school vans for the congestion. “We have parking facilities for our school vans inside our campus. But most parents prefer private school vans for their children and these are often parked on the roadsides creating all the confusion,” said a principal of a private school in Basavanagudi. While admitting that parents opt for private vans as they find the school transport fee high, he claims the management cannot afford to charge less as it needs to pay the drivers and crew. “Although we are not to blame, schools are often targeted,” he regretted.
