However, a major demolition drive is expected in a couple of days to prune the mushrooming shelters. An Express report on the menace:
Ad agencies
There’s no exact count of the number of bus shelters in the city. But they are sighted at all major thoroughfares and close to key crossings ¿ at expected halts as well as illegitimate ones.
Municipal officials lay the blame at the doors of outdoor advertisement agencies, complaining they put up several bus shelters without the KMC’s permission. “Our preliminary count reveals that around 50 per cent of the existing shelters are illegal. We have around 1,000 shelters in the city,” said a municipal source.
A majority of the bus shelters merely serve as display locations for advertisements. Such bus shelters have encroached upon pedestrian space on pavements. These are ill maintained and at many places occupied by hawkers during the day and drug addicts at night. On Chittaranjan Avenue alone, the poor condition of some shelters is well evident.
The rule
Municipal officials say that bus passenger shelters invite a display charge, hence, as per existing rules require permission of the KMC. “The charge varies between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 1.6 lakh for a given year. We expect that revenue collection for the shelters may touch the Rs 5-crore mark in the current financial year,” said a municipal representative of the advertisement department.
KMC plans
KMC officials recently held a meeting with representatives of the advertisement agencies and clearly stated no bus passenger shelter can exist without municipal permission. The agencies have been asked to cooperate and have the shelters “regularized” by paying the charge. The bus shelter builders are also expected to maintain the shelters in proper condition.
Member Mayor-in-Council of the advertisement department Faiyaz Ahmed Khan said the KMC is taking the issue seriously. “We are carrying out a survey. Shelters not complying with civic rules will be regularised. But we will dismantle shelters put up at unwanted locations,” Khan said.
When asked why the shelters were allowed to come up, Khan defended saying that the department was not sitting idle. “We are taking care of a number of issues. It’s just that there were other issues that were addressed first.”
What happens now?
The KMC claims it is looking into a number of proposals to make the shelters attractive and people-friendly. A demolition drive is likely in the near future, which may be followed by the erection of new shelters in place of the existing ones.
Some of the suggestions are as fantastic as construction of air-conditioned bus shelters. But will that solve the problem of citizens commuting by bus? That is still a question mark.