Bus Stop Vanishes Overnight! Bengaluru Commuter Shelter Worth Rs 10 Lakh 'Stolen'

A bus stand worth Rs 10 lakh was stolen a week after it was installed on Cunningham Road in Bengaluru, prompting the police to file a theft case.

A bus shelter, complete with its stainless-steel structure valued at Rs 10 lakh, mysteriously disappeared only a week after its installation on Cunningham Road in Bengaluru. The bus shelter had been under the management of the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), according to reports. The High Grounds police registered a theft case in response to a complaint filed by N Ravi Reddy, an associate vice-president of a company responsible for constructing BMTC bus shelters in the city.

The complaint was lodged on September 30, a full month after the bus shelter's unexpected disappearance.

Reddy's complaint explained, "We undertake the work of constructing bus shelters in the city for BBMP. Accordingly, we had constructed this particular bus shelter (close to Coffee Day) on Cunningham Road on August 21. It was a stainless-steel structure. The cost of the shelter was Rs 10 lakh. However, on visiting the shelter on August 28, we found it missing. We enquired with BBMP officials and asked them whether they had any information on the removal of the shelter and they said no. Finally, we decided to lodge a police complaint." The police have registered a case under IPC 379 (punishment for theft), as reported by the Times of India. 

According to passengers, an old-fashioned bus shelter at the location was recently demolished. "If not demolished, it would have been collapsed in heavy rain and winds," said a passenger. "In August, a newly constructed bus shelter took its place." It vanished within a few days. We have no idea why it was removed. "What if it starts raining now?" a female passenger inquired. The bus stop now has a small shelter that can only accommodate 20 passengers at a time, TOI reported. 

This incident is not the first of its kind in Bengaluru. In March, a three-decade-old bus stand at the HRBR Layout disappeared overnight, making way for a commercial establishment. The bus stand at Kalyan Nagar, donated by the Lions Club in 1990, had been serving the area's residents.

BMTC officials clarified that if the bus shelter had indeed been removed, it was done by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), according to a report by India Today. Similar instances of bus stops mysteriously disappearing have been reported in the city, including the vanishing of the Doopanahalli bus stop near Horizon School in 2015 and a 20-year-old bus stop in BEML Layout III Stage, Rajarajeshwarinagar, in 2014.