BBMP now claims to have removed bus shelter from Cunningham Road

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The bus-shelter which was assumed to have been "stolen" a few weeks ago, was, in fact, removed by the officials from Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) citing public safety, City Police Commissioner B Dayananda clarified on Tuesday.

Speaking about the case, the Bengaluru top cop said that an investigation launched by the jurisdictional High Grounds Police, has revealed that the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) bus shelter had to be removed by the officials due to low-quality work.

He further said that a private company named Singpost India Private Limited was responsible for constructing the BMTC bus shelter at Cunningham Road.

However as the structure was being erected, the BBMP found that the company had not obtained necessary permission before starting the construction.

"During the investigation the police had summoned the BBMP officials from Vasanth Nagar Division and it was found that one Assistant Executive Engineer had removed the bus shelter on August 25 after verifying that the structure lacked proper safety standards," said B Dayananda.

The Police Commissioner said that the BBMP official had conducted an inspection of the bus shelter and found that it was not erected as per safety guidelines due to which the shelter posed a threat to the commuters.

Following this, the BBMP had informed Singpost about the same and had notified its officials to appear before the civic agency along with a work order. However when the company failed to respond to the notice, the shelter was removed and the materials were stored at a warehouse.

On September 30, the Vice President of the firm N Ravi Reddy had filed a complaint with the police claiming that the bus shelter has gone missing. He had also stated that when he checked with the BBMP, the officials claimed no knowledge of any such new bus shelter being constructed on the Cunningham Road.

"As it was neither theft nor a loss, the police have closed the case filed in the matter," added the city police chief. Meanwhile the BBMP is now looking forward to filing a police complaint against the private firm for poor-quality work.