The Koramangala Traffic and Transit Management Centre (TTMC) exemplifies all that is wrong with the design of a TTMC for commercial use.
Touted during its inauguration in February 2011 as the city's biggest TTMC, the eight-floor structure now wears a deserted look. Even though located close to the 100 ft Road in Koramangala VI Block, the complex finds no takers, with only one company that has come forward to rent out space.
It is easy to see why the TTMC has failed to attract commercial interest. For one, the commercial spaces above the bus bays do not have an exclusive entrance; instead people having to use common lifts in the centre of the bay to reach their office.
Secondly, parking would be a problem. A basement allows parking for a few vehicles and this would not suffice if all eight floors were occupied.
There were plans to allow parking at the depot behind the TTMC.
However, a depot manager said that this could be done only after the depot itself were shifted elsewhere. “Around 150 buses come here for maintenance, refuelling, and halt for the night. So until the depot is shifted elsewhere, the TTMC operations — both commercial operations and as a bus bay — cannot start,” he said.
Currently, buses do not enter the TTMC; instead, the bus bay is used as a two-wheeler parking lot. Most buses pass through in front of the bus stop, with only a few passengers alighting at the point.
Workers at the depot questioned the need for the TTMC in Koramangala. “Route numbers 171 and 201 are run so frequently that you will find hardly anyone waiting for a bus here,” said a depot worker. Moreover, he said, the point of a TTMC was to allow commuters to change buses here. “But very few buses start from the TTMC itself, making the TTMC almost like an expensive bus stop,” he said.
Shantinagar and Yeshwanthpur TTMCs, however, portray a different tale. Both have ample parking spaces (Shantinagar has parking on six floors; while Yeshwanthpur has eight floors) and the approach into the building for the office-goer doesn't involve tackling traffic at the bus bay.
Shantinagar has exclusive entrances and parking for the offices, while those at the Yeshwanthpur TTMC have entrances through the vehicle parking building or elevators from the basement.
Additionally, high footfalls in the bus stands make it commercially viable; for instance, the retail joint Big Bazaar in the Shantinagar TTMC.
However, problems that dog other TTMCs can be seen in these structures too.
The finishing work is very shoddy — paint peels off the walls, while electric wires hang loose in a clump — giving the approach to the office a decrepit look.
A manager at the media channel that has set up shop in Yeshwanthpur said that it would be “embarrassing” to bring up a guest through the elevators into the office.
