BENGALURU: The opening of the much-delayed Sir M Visvesvaraya (Sir MV) Terminal has brought cheers to many, but has left some residents and passengers worried.
While residents in areas like Old Byappanahalli, Maruthi Seva Nagar, Sathya Nagar and Banaswadi are worried that opening of the terminal will increase traffic congestion, passengers are concerned about poor accessibility to the new terminal.
“This is a vital link (road in front of terminal) for residents from areas like Maruthi Seva Nagar to Old Madras Road, but roads are still narrow. Opening of the new terminal will only increase traffic chaos as this section cannot handle the huge volume of traffic. In fact, no steps have been taken to widen the road so far,” said Kumar S, a resident of Sathya Nagar.
The nearest Metro stations to Sir MV Terminal are Swami Vivekananda Road and Byappanahalli on Old Madras Road. However, there are no plans to connect Metro stations and the terminal with a foot over bridge/travelator. Sir MV Terminal is around 2km from Byappanahalli Metro station, but passengers have to take a detour of more than 5km by road.
A senior BMRCL official said: “It’s not feasible to construct a 2km-long FoB as people may not walk that much distance with luggage. Providing a travelator and maintaining it are expensive so let the railways come forward.” However, SWR officials said they don’t have plans to improve the integration between Metro stations and Sir MV Terminal.
The suburban rail’s Mallige corridor (Byappanahalli-Chikkabanavara section) too won’t be connected with the terminal. “The nearest station to the terminal will be Maruti Sevanagar. Suburban rail will not have a station on Sir MV Terminal premises, but we’ll work to improve connectivity,” said a K-RIDE official.
In November 2021, an 810m-long RoB at Byappanahalli, which was proposed in 2010-11 to ensure connectivity between Sir MV Terminal and the station on Old Madras Road, was completed. BBMP has been planning to construct a new RoB at Byappanahalli along with the existing one, rotary flyover at the IOC junction and a stretch integrating Banaswadi Main Road and Old Madras Road. However, these proposals remained on paper.
BMTC on Monday launched five routes (10 buses and 144 trips) from Sir MV Terminal at Byappanahalli to Channasandra, Central Silk Board, Nagawara and Munnekolalu Cross/Spice Garden. “We are operating buses at a frequency of 20 minutes. We will run more buses based on demand,” said a BMTC official.
Shivaraj K, a regular rail passenger from Indiranagar, said: “Auto drivers in Banaswadi areas rarely run on meters, so there should be prepaid auto counters at SV Road and Byappanahalli Metro stations as well as at Sir MV Terminal. Reaching this terminal will be a Herculean task. The railways along with other civic agencies should have focused on multi-modal integration long ago, but they waited till this terminal to commence operations.”
SWR denies RTI info on amount spent
While Sir MV Terminal, which was ready in March 2021, remained shut for passengers till June 5, 2022, South Western Railway (SWR) in an RTI application stated that they don’t have data on the amount spent on electricity, water, maintenance, security and cleaning for the station during this period.
