Eight-hour wait for an ambulance

With transportation coming to a standstill, hundreds of passengers were stranded at bus stands and railway stations on Friday.

The worst affected were those who arrived in the city by train. Taxis were off the roads while the bus stand opposite was deserted. Metro services too were not operational.

For nearly eight hours, Durgappa, from Vijayapura, was desperately attempting to find a way to travel from Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna Railway Station to Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardio-Vascular Sciences. He had come to Bengaluru for a check-up after recently undergoing heart surgery. It was only at 4 p.m. that a Good Samaritan called an ambulance to transport him to the hospital.

A group of construction workers from Raichur, who arrived early on Friday by train, decided to walk all the way to Banaswadi with their belongings. Numerous daily-wagers – primarily from Haveri and Bagalkote – lay down on the platforms of the BMTC bus stand waiting for services to resume.

Around noon, a few organisations distributed water among passengers waiting at Kempegowda Bus Stand.

Though Namma Metro services were down for most of the day, some protestors barged into the office of Bangalore Metro Road Corporation Limited (BMRCL) and damaged property.

It was around 6 p.m. that the city started limping back to normal. Metro services began around 6.30 p.m. and so did BMTC. Autorickshaws and cabs started plying around 5.30 p.m.

Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation said nearly 4,700 routes were cancelled and estimated their loss at more than Rs. 4.7 crore.

The Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border at Attibele was virtually closed. Many passengers, who had boarded buses from Chennai, had to alight at Hosur. The Tamil Nadu police, on the advice of their Bengaluru counterparts, stopped four-wheelers and buses from moving towards Bengaluru as early as 5 a.m.

This forced hundreds of passengers to get down at Hosur and make their way to the city on foot. “There were 43 passengers in our bus. We assumed that if came early from Chennai, we can enter Bengaluru before the bandh started. However, as we were not allowed to go beyond Hosur, we had to ask passengers to make alternative arrangements,” said Ramesh, a driver.

Similar scenes played out on the seven roads that connect Chamrajnagar with towns in Tamil Nadu. District Superintendent of Police Kuldip Kumar Jain said there was no movement of traffic throughout the day forcing passengers to alight at the border and cross the check-post by foot, he said.

“Four of us came to the airport on Thursday night as we were feared missing our flight to Riyadh on Friday afternoon. We spent the night in front of the airport,” said M. Pradeep from Kozhikode, Kerala.

“I had to meet a relative in R.T. Nagar urgently as she was not well. However, buses, taxis and autorickshaws were not plying. Finally, I went in my car,” said Vignesh Murthy from Yelahanka.

Amol Gupta on Twitter: Outer Ring Road blocked at multiple places. (Have been) trying an exit towards airport for last one hour