From today’s Star of Mysore:
The announcement by the State Transport Minister N. Cheluvarayaswamy yesterday that he was thinking of turning the J.K. Grounds into a so-called “hi-tech” bus station revives an old debate. There can be no question that Mysore deserves a bigger, better bus station than the horrendous one that we are currently blessed with. But the ease with which our politicians routinely eye the J.K. Grounds is not merely an indication of bankrupt thinking but an indication of the complete lack of vision that has marked our City’s planning and growth (at the hands of post-independence Maharajas and their diwans).
The plan to turn J.K. Grounds into a bus station has been broached several times before and the arguments in its favour have always been the same. That it is spacious enough. That it is close to the business-centre of the City. That it is close to the railway station. And that the approach roads are spacious. However, every single Minister who has come up with the idea has also shown a singular lack of desire to protect what is one of the great open, lung spaces in the middle of the City, and to no one’s surprise Cheluvarayaswamy does not buck the trend.
There are three key reasons why J.K. Grounds should not be killed. The chief one is that it is close to the KR. Hospital, Cheluvamba Hospital and Veterinary Hospital. Hospitals and their inmates need peace and quiet, and a pollution free environment not the noise and fumes of a thousand buses. But there are two other equally important reasons. One, J.K. Grounds is a lake which has been turned into a playground. We should not kill playgrounds. And two, the railway offices in front of the grounds is a heritage building, whose beauty should not be marred by an obscene hi-tech structure.
However, unlike previous ministers Cheluvarayaswamy’s “threat” should be taken more seriously because the JD(S)-BJP government is precisely the kind of government which will ride roughshod over public opinion in the name of development. Indeed, the tone and tenor of the transport minister bodes ill. He says he will talk to the district in-charge minister D.T. Jayakumar and the transport officials before arriving at a decision. How can a momentous decision like this can be arrived at without involving the Mysore City Corporation, the town planning authorities, or our heritage-wallahs?
In many ways, J.K. Grounds provides an epitaph to the Mysore Medical College under whose purview the grounds come. Instead of using the grounds to the fullest, instead of setting an example to fellow citizens that sporting activity can lead to a healthy body, our doctors and medical students have been too busy making money and mugging up. The result is that the grounds have gone to seed. Which is what makes the grounds so attractive to every Minister, who can only see contracts and shopping complexes in the wide open space.
The need of the hour in Mysore is to learn from Bangalore. And the need of the hour is to take any and every measure that will decongest the heart of the City. Building a bus station at J.K. Ground will only lead to congestion of the kind that has killed Bangalore.
What also surprised me is the alacrity with which such decisions are taken and implemented. SOM reported that the minister wants to take a decision within the next ten days. Propose any evidently good idea, our ministers want to study them for a few years but real estate in the middle of the city is always another matter. scary.
Some valid points here…but then if not Jeevan Rayana Katte, then where else ? Srirangapatna ???
Having a bus stand right opposite the railway station has it’s own advantages. I am really not that opposed to the idea.
It’s funny how the ministers’ have timelines. The dude wants to make a decision about this in 10 days. On the other hand DT Jayakumar wants to take 10 years to make Mysore a ‘star tourist attraction’ in the state. avaravara bhAvakke….
beDa,
heritage structures and parks are the only thing we have.
What mahishasura could not do, private transportation will.
Dream Mysore:
The region around the palace has been declared Core Heritage Area(CHA). It approximately includes the rectangle around the palace, and all the radial roads of KR circle, and the Hardinge circle.
CHA has been declared no traffic zone. Only clean energy public transport systems move in the core heritage area and efficiently transport people to their favorite shops and eateries.
Mysore has moved onto direction oriented grid routes and thus there is now no need for for bus stands. The city is now dotted by beautiful set back bus-stops. Further other areas around the city have come up as commercial hubs thus easing the burden on CHA. CHA now is light commercial and cultural nerve center of the city.
Not only have the JK grounds been rejuvenated, the city bus at KR Circle has been razed instead green public space has come up. The area is now full of coffee shops and churumuri –gaadi’s (oily manhuria-gadis have been banned) There are plays and sabhas and in the evenings. And at dusk people gather for an hour of kaapi and chatting.
It was all done in 2006, when it was all doable. Mysore was thus saved.
Abracadabra! Lo when it is convenient Heritage and lung space blah blah are the common refrain of the saviors of Mysore.
No True Heritage conscious citizen would have approved the grotesque Medical Alumni association structure that has come up in the JK Grounds floating the Karnataka Opens Space, Parks and Playgrounds Act! Besides let us not forget the fact that the world famous Mysore Dasara Exhibition used to be conducted both at the JK Grounds and the Exhibition complex adjacent to Medical College during the days of the Maharaja. No one said anything when Medical College gobbled up this heritage space all for itself and Exhibition was shifted to another lung space – Doddakere !
KR Hospital and Cheluvamaba Hospital etc have abundant open space surrounding them, which probably no other Hospitals anywhere in the country are endowed with. Look at Wolkhart Hospital, Mallya Hospital at Bangalore this lame excuse of pollution will fall on it own head. Even the Bangalore Medical College and Hospitals is surrounded by the City Market Bus stand and Kalasipalayam Bus stand and is in highly congested area. What is required is the standard of Hygiene inside the Hospitals and the general standard and quality of treatment in these hospitals needs some urgent wielding of the scalpel ! Mysore University Play grounds are pretty close to Medical College Hostel and they can justifiably make use of them to satisfy the so-called Rules.
One can be proactive and design a Bus stand, which is both Modern and at the same time blends with Heritage structures around.
It is easy to preach but look even Kuvempu when he was the VC allowed ugly structures to come up around the Heritage Mansion of Jayalashammni Manson at Manasa Gangothri. It needed a lady from Hubli- Smt. Sudha Murthy to teach Mysoreans and UOM about Heritage.
The City Bus stand around the ancient l Heritage edifice of Palace Fort needs to be abandoned if you really care for the Heritage. Look at some old Mysore Photos to see how KR Circle looked in the years of yore to appreciate what I am saying !
Minister Cheluvarayaswamy needs to be congratulated for his bold stand. Any planned cosmopolitan city should have its public transport faculties near each other. It makes better sense to have a Bus stand near a Railway station. JK grounds is so near to the Roads leading to Bangalore, Hunsur/ KR Nagar/ Coorg – which forms the bulk of the Road transport system. In fact this should reduce the overall pollution in the city.
One cannot compare the situation with Bangalore. Bangalore is one of the fastest growing cities in the world. You start from anywhere in Bangalore whether City Bus stand, New Terminal or Kalasipalayam it takes 1 hour to reach Kengeri ! Any way the ides of shifting to the newly built terminal was not a bright idea either.
So let us not get carried away by some doctored shindig and let us look at it objectively. Those who insist on the heritage and lung space of mysore here is a request please volunteer to stop public smoking at Parks & /stop growing tobacco in mysore district and also stop public peeing at the fort walls to begin with !
Read todays SOM’s readers column ! Mr>shenoy seems to have suddenly realised that the MMC Platinum Jubillee Building is violative of Karnataka Parks, Playfields and Open Spaces (Preservation and Regulation) Rules, 1985 ! Iam vindicated !!