Delay in new bus terminus at Belagavi hits commuters

Belagavi: More than two years after the foundation stone was laid for the central bus terminus in Belagavi, only half the work has been completed, though the deadline has long expired in January 2018. The slow pace of the work for the high-tech building has already created lot of inconvenience to the commuters.
According to sources, work like plastering concrete, installing ramps, construction of toilets, electrification, painting are yet to start though the structural work has been completed.

The construction of a new building for the central bus terminus was first announced in 2012 by the then transport minister R Ashoka. He had announced the sanctioning of the project in the assembly. However, the work did not start during the BJP government’s time.

In 2015, though the work was proposed to be taken up under Smart City project, it was dropped by the Siddaramaiah government. Later it launched the work under state funding in 2016. However, the work did not see the expected pace despite the NWKRTC authorities warning the contractor with imposing penalty.

Since Belagavi is located on the border between Karnataka and Maharashtra, over 2,000 buses from different places enter the terminus daily. Hundreds of buses travel to Hubballi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Goa, Chennai, Bagalkot, Mysuru, Vijayapura, Bidar and Davanagere. The temporary place created for parking of buses at the bus terminus is also falling short. According to sources, over 60,000 people use this terminus to go to different destinations every day.

A few days ago, the work for the city bus terminus, which was functioning outside the central bus terminus, has also been taken up for the construction under smart city project and those buses are also now operating from central bus terminus. Hence, the parking place at the terminus falling extremely short, especially for the long route buses.

According to divisional controller Mahadevappa Munji, the work of central bus terminus has been expedited and they are trying to finish it as early as possible. According to them, so far, the work of nearly Rs 12 crore has been completed