City Centre Traffic Muddle “Transport Triangle” -- The Crux of the Traffic Problem by R. Chandra Prakash

Recent write ups in Star of Mysore are an indicative of the fact that the city centre traffic problem has caught the attention of citizens. And this augurs well for Mysuru and Mysoreans.  This will make the People’s Representatives of every hue and Officers of every Department to take note of citizens’ anguish and  to take their responsibilities seriously. 

What is the nature of City Centre? Who are the main contributors to Traffic Muddle out there?

City Centre – A Commercial Hub

Erstwhile Makkaji Chowk has spawned new and modern commercial establishments around Devaraja Market, on roads such as Sayyaji Rao Road, Dhanvantari Road, and the new Devaraja Urs Road. Even the old Dodda Pete i.e Ashoka Road, Shivarampet and Chamaraja Double road have now become very busy commercial area. Heritage Devaraja Market continues to be the epicenter of  city’s commercial activities.

K.R.Hospital Complex in the City Centre has expanded with the establishment of newer Departments and services. Further, it has given rise to a large number of pathological labs and pharmaceutical shops. Being only large and heritage government hospital in Mysuru District, K.R.Hospital complex  attracts exceptionally large number of  patients from rural areas apart from city itself. 

Thus, there is no denying of the fact that, despite of emergence of new extensions with commercial complexes, city centre continues to be our Commercial Hub. Mysore Master Plan has categorized this area as Central Business District [CBD].

Further, over past decades the number of private vehicles has grown at a very fast rate. City has nearly seven lakh vehicles of different categories. Two wheelers, followed by four wheelers, constitute a very large chunk of total private vehicles. This indicates citizens’ preference to independent mode of transport. Prevalence of concentrated commercial activities within the city centre along with preference to private transport vehicles have certainly resulted in heavy vehicular traffic in the city centre. 

However, it would be missing the real problem if we think that the city centre traffic muddle is entirely due to above reasons. Widened roads within the city centre would have provided adequate scope for the smooth flow for the fast increasing private vehicle. The real culprit in the city centre traffic muddle is the emergence of self constricting “Transport Triangle” within the city centre.  

“Transport Triangle” - The Crux of the Traffic Problem 

Railway Station, Suburban Bus Station and the City Bus Station are located on three points of a triangle formed by Sayyaji Rao Road, Irwin Road and the Bengaluru – Nilgiri Road.   And this is a very narrow triangle in that. The distances between the two angles do not exceed 1.5 km. This is what we would like to identify as “Transport Triangle”, which is our own Bermuda Triangle of sort. Most important of all, CBD is located within this triangle!!

Let us consider functioning and the consequences of this Transport Triangle on the city centre.  

Railway station

Railways run 35 pairs of daily trains (which mean daily 70 trains, either departing or arriving at the station), 5 Weekly trains, 3 Bi Weekly trains, and one Weekly train from the station. Every day there are, on an average, 28,000 to 30,000 outgoing passengers; and on an average, 30,000 incoming passengers at the Railway station. This means that on an average 60,000 passengers are making use of the Railway station. Not all trains carry same number of passengers. It is mainly the Bengaluru – Mysuru oriented train traffic which account for major chunk of railway passengers arriving at or departing from the railway station. 

Part of arriving passengers would be heading towards Suburban Bus Station to catch their buses to reach their destinations in the rural hinterland. So also a large number of railway passengers could be heading to City Bus Station to complete their onward journey to destination, in case they cannot have a city bus at the railway station.

Railway passengers make use of buses, auto-rickshaws, four wheelers and two wheelers to arrive at or depart from railway station. One can imagine the vehicular traffic generated by the Railway station on Irwin Road, Jhansi Lakshmi Bai Road and now on K.R.S Road.

Since the C.F.T.R.I side of the railway station does not have full service of ticket booking, bus services, etc, major portion of railway passengers prefer to use the old railway office side entrance/exit. This further increased the passenger load on Irwin Road and Jhansi Lakshmi Bai Road.

Thus, heavy vehicular traffic generated by the railway station within this narrow triangle cannot be ignored.

Sub-urban Bus Station

Sub-urban Bus Station is located on the Benglauru – Niligiri road, within about 1.5 km from the railway station. This bus station was established in 1977 only to operate Mysuru - Bengaluru Non-Stop Bus services and to overcome the congestion at the city centre bus station. Over the period it developed as Sub-urban Bus station.  Today this bus station is handling 2,350 arrivals and 2,350 departures per day. On an average about 1,00,000 passengers make use of this sub-urban bus station every day.

Daily there are 557 departures towards Bengaluru alone (115 Non –Stop luxury bus services, 310 Non-Stop Karnataka Saarige services [non A/C buses], and 132 Inter-state bus services). Bengaluru  oriented departures  alone account for more than 20,000 passengers per day. Then there are an equal number of arrivals, both in number of buses and the number of passengers. This means that Bengaluru oriented buses alone account for more than 1000 buses and about 40,000 passengers; both incoming and outgoing. One can imagine the total load of this traffic alone on the sub-urban bus stand. 

This load is not evenly spread over 24 hours. On an average from 08.00  to 19.00 is the peak time at the bus station. In that too 09.00 to 10.00 and 14.00 to 15.00 are high peak times. The traffic load  is very high during the peak times.

One has to take into consideration the fact that those who get into and get out of the sub-urban bus station themselves will be using some means of transport. That could be city bus services, two wheelers, four wheelers, auto-rickshaws.  All these vehicles will be using the roads leading from and to the present sub-urban bus station. There is substantial traffic, both of vehicles and the passengers, between Sub-urban Bus Station and the Railway Station on Irwin Road on the one hand, and between the Sub-urban Bus Station and the City Bus Station via Harding Circle. Consequently, these short distance roads within the Transport Triangle get further highly  congested.

City Bus Station

This bus station was established around 1967. Today 421 city buses make 6,300 trips, ie arrive and depart from this bus station. On an average about 2,60,000  passengers make use of City Bus Station.  Of  6,300 trips , nearly 3,335 trips are those which take place during the Peak hours consisting of 07.30 to 10.30 and 16.00 to 19.00 hours. Obviously the density of bus trips and the number of passengers will be skewed heavily during the peak hours. 

Now this bus station is located at a corner of K.R.Circle, with entrance from Albert Victor Road (between two statue circles) and exit on Sayyaji rao road. All the buses coming to City Bus Station come from Albert Victor Road, and almost all the departing buses take turn towards MCC office on Sayyaji Rao road. Congestion caused by these buses on these two roads has to be seen to be believed. 

“Transport Triangle” needs immediate Attention

From the above facts and figures one can imagine how much of vehicular traffic is accounted by this Transport Triangle. One can argue that this triangle is only a consequence of the existence of CBD.  Even if it is so, a time has come to find out of the box solutions before these roads become out of use due to chocking vehicular traffic.  All the wide footpaths in the CBD area are either slimmed down or have become not useful to the pedestrians. Like in Bengaluru, city bus drivers may soon refuse to drive on these chocked roads, if immediate solutions are not found.

Possible Solutions

A. Reduce the number of passengers disembarking  at the city station by following steps are recommended: 

a. Railways should consider brief stop at Naganahalli for  trains originating from Bengaluru so that passengers heading to areas linked by Ring Road can disembark there. Bus services should be made available here for such destination.

b. Railways should also consider to extend the services above trains to be extended till Railway workshop. This would facilitate passengers to disembark at Chamarajpet station, and at Railway Workshop station to reach their destinations in southern parts of the city.

c. Trains coming from Hassan Arasikere side should give a stop at Metagalli where a new terminal is being planned. This will help passengers heading towards western part of the city to disembark.

d. Railways should introduce local trains running between Naganahalli, City Station, Chamarajapuram, Ashokapuram, and even Kadokola where a large container station is being planned. Similarly locals can run between KRS, Belagola Metagalli, and City station and provide link to earlier mentioned local trains.

Above steps will not only help reduce the passenger load on the city station but substantially reduce the vehicular traffic on the roads in the CBD. Similar steps have been taken in Bengaluru with the shifting of  many operations first to Cantonment station, then to Yeshvanthpur station and now development of KR Puram station. Should Mysuru wait for total collapse of the system before one considers rational solutions?

B. Shift the City Bus station and re-design the routing pattern

It is time that the present City Bus Station, which is already chocking due to shortage of space and highly congested CBD roads is shifted out of the CBD. It seems to have outlived its utility and is more a main source of vehicular congestion in the CBD. The present city bus routes are structured mostly on a Circular pattern. It is time to consider Radial Patter in the light of newer bus stations available on the Ring Road or nearby Ring Road. Prof.Yedunandan, of J.C.Enigineering College, who is also a Consultant Structural Engineer,  has developed Radial Loop system for the internal bus transport which can be considered here.

C. Need to Shift the Sub-urban Bus Station

Sheer load of bus trips on Bengaluru – Nilgiri road within the city demands that major operations of this bus station needs decentralization. Like in the case of heavy vehicles, now time has come to restrict the movement of sub-urban buses through the city roads. Bengaluru oriented buses can make use of Sathagalli Bus Station, near Narayan Hridyalaya, on the Ring Road. And southern sector buses can be routed through a bus station on Ring Road there. So also the Eastern and Western sector buses. These steps may be considered highly impractical at first. But since there is no alternative to them, one should hasten up to test them. Who could imagine that Mysuru oriented buses could be cut off from the main bus station at Bengaluru and shifted to the Satellite Bus station. Have not the travelling public gradually accepted this change?

Serious problems demand courageous decisions. Mysore Master Plan should have taken note of this problem, but did not. Now at least it is time that MUDA, MCC, RTO, and the Police department put their heads together to analyze the traffic problem emanating from the Traffic Triangle and take appropriate steps before it reach gigantic proportions. But has it not already reached that stage?