MYSURU: Hundreds of commuters travelling from Mysuru to Gundlupet, Nanjangud and Chamarajanagar, are forced to stand under the scorching sun near Gun House due to non-availability of bus shelters. Repeated requests, citizens say, have fallen on deaf ears.
According to regular commuters, including students, farmers and residents of Mysuru who work in neighbouring taluks and districts, they would earlier take shelter under a tree while waiting for buses. However, for the development of the Mysuru-Nanjangud road near Gun House, the trees were chopped off, leaving commuters stranded.
Most of the buses from the Suburban bus stand going towards Nanjangud, Chamarajanagar and Gundlupet make a halt at this bus stop, with at least 500-600 people using this spot on a daily basis.
With a lacking bus shelter, Shivashankar S, a commuter who travels between Mysuru to Gundlupet on an everyday basis, pointed out that there is no fixed point where buses drivers stop, leaving commuters to run a few metres to board the bus. “A shelter is a basic right of a commuter, which we are being denied. Every single day, we have to stand under the blazing sun waiting for our bus. No authorities have come forward to construct a bus shelter so far. Senior citizens and farmers from the neighbouring district and taluks often come to Mysuru, and their return journey has become a nightmare,” he said.
According to commuter, Balaji Mysuru, who has appealed to authorities about the non-availability of bus shelters, this issue has been going on for many years. “Earlier, people used to stand under trees but after the development work by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), trees were chopped off leaving us with no option but to stand on the road,” he said.
When CE contacted V Manjunath, corporator of ward-51 B, he said, “There is a proposal to construct a bus shelter on this stretch. Once the election code of conduct concludes we will take up the work.