The long-pending demand of the residents of Haveri for a modern bus station was finally met on Saturday with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah inaugurating a new bus terminus built at a cost of Rs. 6.5 crore.
Despite being a district headquarters, the Haveri bus station, which operates 1,300 schedules a day and caters to the needs of 52,000 passengers, lacked infrastructure and adequate space. The construction of the new bus station was initiated five years ago after demolishing the old building.
But, the project was delayed as the construction company which took up the work initially got blacklisted because of its failure to expedite the work.
As the bus station was being operated from a temporary premises, passengers were forced to face hardships. The delay in work also led to protests by the residents.
After the re-tendering process, the work was expedited. The two-storeyed bus station has 2,107 sq. m area on the ground floor and 970.34 sq. m area on the first floor.
The bus station, which has a rainwater harvesting system, has been built keeping in mind the requirements of the passengers and has a ramp, toilets and wheelchair facilities for the physically challenged. It can handle 18 buses at a time.
With 21stalls and a large commercial complex, the bus station has a ‘Shuddha Kudiyuva Neeru’ unit, a passenger information display system and an announcement system.
To provide more space for the bus station, the Haveri bus depot was shifted to the outskirts of the city and a new depot spread across 3.2 acres was built at a cost of Rs. 2.61 crore.
The Chief Minister inaugurated the bus depot too.
