BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah got a taste of the poorly maintained Bengaluru Metropolitan Transportation Corporation (BMTC) buses and the city’s traffic jams during his visit to the rain affected-areas on Wednesday. As a result, he was forced to curtail his visit.
Siddaramaiah was travelling in a hop in-hop off bus, meant for Bengaluru city tour, with his cabinet and party colleagues. And he had to literally hop in and hop off two buses due to some snags.
The CM was accompanied by Bengaluru Development Minister K J George, Urban Development Minister R Roshan Baig, Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy, Transport Minister H M Revanna, Mayor G Padmavathi, BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad and BWSSB Chairman Tushar Girinath.
As soon as the bus started from the CM’s home office Krishna, officials realised that there was some problem with the bus’s airconditioner but they could do little at that point of time. The VVIPs got almost roasted due to the heat trapped inside the bus and the humid atmosphere outside.
After the first stop at JC Road, a few officials quietly moved into the two buses which were ferrying the BBMP and BWSSB staff and the journalists. But the CM and his team had to grin and bear the situation until they reached the BMTC workshop in Shantinagar where they got into another bus. The journey then continued smoothly, but slowly due to the heavy traffic on Hosur Road and at Silk Board junction covering HSR Layout and the adjoining areas of KR Puram.
Soon the CM and his party had to brake hard suddenly again when their convoy reached Ramamurthy Nagar. This time round because the second bus too developed a snag. The buses ferrying officials too had to halt on that road. All were stuck there for more than 20 minutes. With no solution in sight, the CM and his colleagues decided to abandon the bus and the visit to Kalkere. Finally, they left the place in their respective cars.