An audit of 60 bus stops around Mahadevapura and Whitefield areas, carried out by five students with Whitefield Rising, revealed that 40 were in poor condition and needed immediate fixing.
The audit covered 60 bus stops across a 23.03 km stretch, including Kundalahalli, Pattandur Agrahara, Varthur Kodi, Hoodi among others. The bus shelters were evaluated on 12 factors across six standards: safety, accessibility, structure, cleanliness, lighting, and seating.
None of the bus stops was covered under CCTV surveillance, and there were no holdings to suggest that there was any CCTV camera. This is despite the city having at least 3.5 lakh cameras and an additional 8,500 AI-powered cameras installed under the safe city project.
Among other major concerns, the audit revealed that 84.2% of bus stops were poorly lit, and the source of light for the majority of the shelters was billboards and other advertisement panels. Interestingly, none of the bus shelters had “bus stop” sign, and many didn’t even have the name of the bus stand written on the shelter.
Among the 40 bus stops that needed immediate attention, 33% had poor flooring, 15% had seating issues, 35% of the bus shelters were poorly lit, 78% of the shelters didn’t have bus stop names, and 35% had issues that are potential health hazards.
Anjali Saini, a member of Whitefield Rising, said that they took three weeks to conclude the audit, which included 10 days of legwork and 10 days of data analysis. “We have compiled the report and presented it to the BMTC officials. We are trying to present the data to BBMP officials for their part of the issue, but they have not responded,” Ms. Saini added.
A BBMP official told The Hindu that the BBMP Traffic Engineering Cell (TEC) is undergoing internal changes; hence, they have not been able to review the report. Once done with the ongoing revamp of TEC, the report will be taken up.
Published – July 09, 2025 10:12 pm IST
