Twist in tale: Bengaluru bus stop was not stolen, BBMP removed it

Bengaluru: The brand new bus shelter worth Rs 10 lakh which had gone ‘missing’ here just days after its installation was not stolen but it was removed by officials of the city civic body -- Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) -- citing safety concerns to public due to its “poor construction”, police said on Tuesday.

The stainless steel bus shelter on Cunningham Road was located behind the Bengaluru city police commissioner’s office and was in close proximity to 'Vidhana Soudha', and some recent reports that it had been stolen had left police officials red-faced.

According to police, based on a complaint received by a representative of Signpost India Pvt Ltd, a company responsible for constructing BMTC bus shelters, a case of theft was registered at High Grounds police station on September 30.

In its complaint, the company alleged that the steel bus shelter constructed on August 21 was found to be ‘missing’ during an inspection conducted by its firm on August 28.

During probe, when the investigators approached the BBMP Assistant Executive Engineer of Vasanth Nagar division, he told them that during a ward inspection conducted by him along with his team, it was found out that the bus shelter installed was “poorly constructed” and keeping public safety in mind, the shelter was removed on August 25 and the materials were kept in a godown, a senior police officer said.

“During investigation, we scanned through multiple CCTV footage and found out that that bus shelter was removed by the BBMP officials.

When we contacted the concerned BBMP official, he told us that the shelter was removed due to its faulty construction. It was poorly constructed and posed a danger to passengers. A notice was also issued by the BBMP to the company but when it did not respond, the bus shelter was removed on August 25 for safety of passengers and to avoid any untoward incident,” he said.