Bus Rapid Transit System may help better ride in Coimbatore
BRTS may help avoid chaos on roads
It effectively cuts out the risk of accidents owing to rash switching of lanes
Coimbatore: If its plan for the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) in the city turns into a reality, the Coimbatore Corporation will have contributed immensely towards reducing the present chaos on the roads in the city.
With people blaming most of the accidents on speeding buses, the BRTS is expected to bring about some order on the roads. This service will run on tracks along pavements and halt at only scheduled stops. It effectively cuts out the risk of accidents owing to rash switching of lanes.
At present, buses swing to the extreme left and sharply to the other side while taking a right turn at signals. For example, buses bound for the Gandhipuram bus stand halt at extreme left at the 100 Feet Road signal and swerve sharply to the right to enter Sathyamangalam Road. This threatens to mow down smaller vehicles. The situation is similar at the Avanashi Road-LIC Road junction and the Avanashi Road-Headquarters Road junction.
According to the Coimbatore Corporation, the aim is to convert all the existing bus services for the entire city into BRTS. The civic body feels that there is no point in having parallel services. There will not be enough space for both the existing services and the BRTS.
At the same time, the mofussil services to Tirupur, Pollachi, Erode, Salem and Udhagamandalam may not pose too many problems. Though these cannot be brought under the BRTS, the shifting of the bus terminals out of the core city area will ensure that these stay off the city roads. These long-distance services will operate from the Singanallur Bus Stand and another planned on Mettupalayam Road. Already, buses to Pollachi and Udumalpet are operated only from the stand at Ukkadam, on the city's southern border.
Private services to the southern districts in the State, to Kerala and Karnataka are operated from a stand in the city. If these are to be cleared, the Chennai example of a terminal at Koyambedu may have to be followed.
If the present plan envisages the BRTS as the only bus service in the Coimbatore city, it will ensure safer motorable stretches for other vehicles. The Corporation wants to take over from the highways those portions of Avanashi Road, Mettupalayam Road and Tiruchi Road that come under its limits. It wants to provide lanes for different category of vehicles such as two-wheelers and four-wheelers to overcome the present problems caused by switching lanes at will.
Coimbatore City Police Commissioner C.K. Gandhi Rajan says the police have already begun cracking down on lane violations. City police officials are on vigil at every traffic junction and on main roads to book violators. Head Constables and constables are noting down the registration numbers of vehicles and obtaining the address of the owners from the Regional Transport Office. "When notices are served on them at their homes, the violations will come down," says Mr. Gandhi Rajan
