Bengaluru: On Saturday all roads led to Shantinagar bus terminus with supporters of Bus Bhagya Beku campaign and some celebrities converging there from Jayanagar, Majestic, Shivajinagar, Banashankari, Koramangala and other areas.
The Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) too lent its helping hand with top officials joining the campaign that calls for 'doubling of bus fleet and halving their fares'.
"We want buses to be affordable for all kinds of people. There needs to be double the number of buses, that is 12,000 for proper connectivity," said Vinay Sreenivasa, from Bus Prayanikara Vedike. He pointed out that for implementing this project a corpus fund should be made available, instead of spending Rs 1,800 crore for a steel flyover and the proposed Rs 25,000 crore for elevated corridors."
Srinivas Alavilli of Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB) welcomed celebrities joining the Bus Bhagya campaign and hoped this would make travelling in buses 'cool'.
Popular actor Shraddha Shrinath from the 'U-Turn' movie said, "I spent 5 years of my college life travelling in buses grudgingly, while my friends came in cars and bikes. As I grew older, I realised that public transport is what we need to reduce traffic and pollution."
How do we convince people to shift to buses? "For getting everyone, and I mean everyone, to shift to buses the service needs to be made convenient. In European and American cities, everyone just takes the bus normally. This kind of shift is needed not only in Bengaluru, but all over the nation," Shraddha said, adding that she boarded the bus from Jayanagar.
Music artiste Bruce Lee from Thermal and a Quarter band took the bus from Koramangala, while Radio and TV Journalist Vasanthi Hariprakash took a bus from Vidyaranyapura.
Software Analyst Tushar Kapila told Deccan Chronicle, "I lost three of my friends, from school, to road accidents. I feel if people took the bus, there would be fewer accidents."
Interestingly Tushar said he had trouble finding a bus to join the campaign, thanks to poor connectivity in BMTC network. "I waited at Jayamahal for a while, after which I took an auto to Shivajinagar. From there, I hopped on to a bus to Shantinagar. For my work, I ensure I take the bus at least twice a week, though the connectivity is bit of an issue."
