BENGALURU: The Basaveshwara bus terminal, at Peenya, off Tumkur Road has proven to be one of biggest white elephants for the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC). The terminal was earlier planned to be converted into an electric bus depot, however, now, the corporation is on the look out for commercial tenants for the bus terminal. Sources from the bus corporation revealed that they have not been able to effectively make use of the terminal, since it failed to fulfil the purpose it was built for.
The bus terminal was built on 6 acres of land at a cost of over Rs 40 crore in the year 2014 with the sole intention to ease out the traffic at Kempegowda Bus Terminal. However, the attempt to operate all buses heading towards North Karnataka from this terminal failed, as there was no patronage from the public.
Sources revealed that KSRTC managing director V Anbukumar was keen to explore the options to put the idle bus terminal into use. He got to know that the terminal failed to serve any purpose and it was a white elephant, while taking stock of the corporation, when he took over as the managing director.
“There were discussions to convert the idle bus terminal into an electric bus depot, as KSRTC will be adding more e-buses to its fleet. However, nothing concrete has evolved of this discussion yet. KSRTC spends more than Rs 7 lakh monthly, to maintain the terminal which includes salary of security staff among other maintenance related expenses. This is why we are looking for commercial tenants,” the source said.