Whitefield is clear

Consistent with Whitefield’s reputation for being a self-sufficient satellite town of Bangalore, schools here seem largely unaffected by the chaos caused by the ongoing strike by school bus and autorickshaw drivers.

The reason for this area’s immunity seems to be that most schools here have their own school bus system, and don’t depend on private school cabs or autorickshaws to transport students. Additionally, most of the students attending school in Whitefield live in or around the school campus; making the drop-off and pickup process easier.

Monisha Selvi, Assistant Administrative at Delhi Public School, Whitefield, said: “we have our own school buses to transport students. Although we do pick up students that live in a 30 km radius, most live in areas such as Shanti Niketan and the Brigade Metropolis, and the farthest outliers are only in Marathahalli and Kundanahalli. Therefore the traffic from other schools hasn’t affected the school buses too much either.”

Of course, the traffic scene in this area was nowhere near as bad as the rest of the city where school zones became impossible to negotiate for motorists.

‘No trouble’

Sanan Shendige, communications officer at Inventure Academy on the Whitefield-Sarjapur Road, said: “All students come to school on our school buses or their parents’ cars, and we haven’t had any trouble with latecomers or any disruption of the regular schedule. We ourselves replace our school buses every 5 to 6 years and never needed to rely on private van services.”