More KSRTC buses to clear holiday rush

Now there is no need to keep your fingers crossed, mulling over whether  you will get a bus ticket to your home town or, perhaps, a neighbouring state that you are keen on visiting.

For Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has added extra bus services to the nearby states to meet the rising transit demands of the holiday season.

KSRTC plans to roll out 300 or 400 extras to the already existing 4000 bus schedules that are operating from Bangalore.

“This is a demand-driven situation. We plan to increase the schedules by studying the pattern of advance bookings. We have procured two additional multi-axle Volvo buses to meet the extra demands of the people,” said Gaurav Gupta, MD, KSRTC.

Advance bookings for major destinations like Chennai, Coimbatore, Trichy, Trivandrum, Thrissur, Ernakulam, Kozhikode, Panjim, Mangalore, Shimoga, Mysore, Udupi, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Mumbai and Pune have no doubt pushed KSRTC to add more buses for this season. KSRTC also plans to increase the fleet of Airavat club class multi-axle Volvo buses to 40 by March next year.

“The holiday period starts from December 23 and goes on till January 2. Hence we are planning on adding 80 buses per day to places like Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Tirupathi, Ernakulam, Trichy, Thrissur and Panjim, along with other cities” said Channabasappa Herur, chief manager (Marketing and Commuter Relations), KSRTC.

Although the KSRTC officials denied any major demand of travelling during December 27 to December 31, most of the tickets booked for buses are for coming back to Bangalore from the respective holiday destinations.

“Throughout the holiday season, we will operate these extra schedules to facilitate Bangaloreans to come back to their city by means of a reliable transportation, such as ours,” said Channabasappa.

The 80 vehicles added by KSRTC will include Airavat, Meghdoot, Express and Rajahamsa buses.

The schedules will however be planned from the respective departing bus terminals.

KSRTC officials said that despite minor turmoils in Andhra Pradesh due to the arrest of Chandrababu Naidu, KSRTC will operate buses to various destinations there.