Bangalore is probably one of the only cities that has a number of colourful buses.
From the regular blue and white to the blue and orange Volvo. While most are familiar with these colourful buses, there is one that most do not know of. The pink bus! Yes, there is a pink bus as well.
Needless to say this is a Women’s Special bus. Sadly this particular initiative did not fair very well. The bus service that started five years ago, was an initiative by the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC).
“This special bus service was launched on the request of the working women in the city,” said KS Vishwanath, Chief Traffic Manager, BMTC. The city has a number of women employees who use public transport. Most of these women used to travel by bus and on many occasions there were complaints of harassment from men.
These buses were started to help these women and reduce their hassles. However, over time the BMTC official realised that post the peak hours, these buses would run empty.
“It was after observing that we decided to change the route,” informed Vishwanath. Finally these buses were utilised to transport both women and men and was no longer exclusive to women.
Another reason for the lack of popularity is the ignorance on the part of the civilians.
Even today hardly a handful of people are aware of this bus. “I have never seen these buses on the road,” said Anuraj Jain, a software engineer who has been living in the city for the last 10 years. Rima Mukherjee has been using buses to travel in the city. “Many years ago I had seen a pink bus. I was under the impression that it was a regular bus that was repainted. In the last five years I might have spotted one or two of these buses,” she said.
To begin with there were 15 such buses. But today the number has drastically reduced to almost one fourth the original number. At the moment these women’s only buses cover four routes within the city. These buses are most utilised during the peak office hours during the day. They leave from Kempegowda Bus Station and head to different directions in the city. From KBS the four routes are to JP Nagar 6th Phase, Chandra Layout, Nandini Layout and Yelahanka 6th phase. Apart from these routes the buses also do 22 other routes from various parts of the city to Vidhana Soudha.
“The buses that commute on the four designated routes travel through the day while the 22 extra routes function according to the Vidhana Soudha’s timings,” said Vishwanath.
From the looks of it the bus services seems to be dying a slow but gradual death.
“If I were to choose between travelling in an air conditioned Volvo and a regular rexine seater bus, I would opt for the Volvo. Though the concept was a good one, the awareness is not enough,” said Shilpa Rao, a commuter.
Even today there are many regular buses where the front seats are reserved for women passengers. However more often than not these seats are occupied by men. To add to it, the men at times do not even vacate the seat if they notice a lady standing.