When you enter the office on the second floor of BMTC's new Jayanagar bus terminal, you may as well be inside a swanky private corporate office. You can't be blamed if you rub your eyes in disbelief when you see the nameboard, “Regional Transport Office, Bangalore South”. But the fact is, yes, there is a sea change from the normally seedy, dingy, dilapidated buildings that house RTOs in the State.
Those who used to visit the older Jayanagar RTO building will never forget the ordeal traversing between different floors of the Jayanagar Shopping Complex to get a job done. The office was spread across three floors — the third, the fourth and the seventh.
Unlike the previous one (16,000 sq ft), the new premises, spread across 26,000 sq ft, is on a single floor even as clear demarcations are made between different sections — transport vehicles, non-transport vehicles, driving licence, etc. Vitrified flooring, large windows, well-planned cubicles for the staff, chambers for officers, clear bilingual (Kannada and English) boards and signages for different sections, give a distinct appearance to this RTO.
Branding exercise
While the BMTC has furnished the interiors of the building out of the Rs. 2 crore provided by the Government, the designs were finalised during the tenure of Bhaskar Rao as the Commissioner for Transport. Mr. Rao had introduced branding exercise for the department with distinct logo and colour codes, which have promptly been executed at this office for the first time, after the commissioner's office.
Lakshmikanthan, an engineering graduate who was waiting to get a duplicate copy of his driving licence, said that he had a nice experience while dealing with the staff. “The change in office environment appears to have brought in some attitudinal change among the employees here,” he said complimenting the new set-up. “Besides, there is no question of running up and down unlike at the earlier premises,” he said.
Better monitoring
Regional Transport Officer B.P. Umashankar said that the office was shifted in October last. “The new location has helped in better monitoring as it is located on a single floor,” he told The Hindu . The department also plans to install a few closed circuit TV cameras in public areas as well as staff areas, which, among other things, will help identify frequent visitors (touts).
The office also houses two classrooms, one for oral and the other for written tests for learner's licence. A 90-seat auditorium is coming up. This facility will also be used to screen documentaries on road safety for driving licence aspirants. The office issues about 150 driving licences and learner licences each besides registering 80 two-wheelers and 30 cars each day. Nearly 1,200 people visit the office each day, he said.
One small hitch however is that while the office on the 2 floor is swanky, on the ground floor, there is no signage announcing the RTO. Moreover, the way up from the ground floor, via lift or staircase, is not clearly marked.
Facelift for three more RTOs
Three more regional transport offices (RTOs) in Bangalore are all set to look and feel “corporate”, following a planned revamp this fiscal.
Commissioner for Transport and Road Safety T. Sham Bhat told The Hindu that the offices of RTO, Bangalore North, at Yeshwanthpur BDA Complex, will be relocated to the Yeshwanthpur TTMC; that of Electronic City and Krishnarajapuram too will be relocated to the department's own buildings.
These offices will get corporate look akin to the Jayanagar RTO, Mr. Bhat said. He said the Government had handed out Rs. 2 crore to BMTC to furnish the Jayanagar RTO.
