Curtailment of bus services operated by the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) resulted in chaos at the Majestic bus-stand on Tuesday evening. Passengers were seen making desperate attempts to get on the buses and had heated arguments with staff of the corporation for not running adequate buses.
To clear the rush, the KSRTC was forced to run city buses of the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) on intra-State long-distance routes. People were seen standing and travelling.
The KSRTC provided 4,100 buses for election duty, which was more than half the fleet size of the KSRTC. An official of the KSRTC said that over 500 buses of the BMTC were operated on long-distance routes such as Davangere, Yadgir, Chitradurga, Bagalkot, Raichur, and Ballari.
Sumanagala R., a native of Davangere, said: “I did not expect a shortage of buses. It is very sad that people are struggling to get transportation facilities to cast their votes. The authorities concerned should have made proper arrangements anticipating the demand.”
However, those who booked tickets did not face much problem.
Another passenger said: “There was a heavy rush at the terminal which operates buses to northern parts of the State. Passengers were arguing with the staff of KSRTC for not providing enough buses. At the counter too, the staff faced the ire of passengers.”
An official of KSRTC said: “To cast their votes, passengers turned up in large numbers at Majestic in the afternoon to leave for their native places. In the evening, the numbers further increased. For the benefit of passengers, we operated BMTC buses on long-distance routes. Providing more buses for election duty resulted in a scarcity of buses, and we had shared the information well in advance.”
Railway stations, too, saw increased footfall on Tuesday. A senior official of the South Western Railway (SWR) said there was increased demand for unreserved tickets. “On Tuesday, trains scheduled to Mysuru and Hassan side saw more demand. For the benefit of passengers, we opened extra counters at railway stations. The number of passengers travelling to Hubballi, Kalaburagi, and other destinations in the northern parts of the State was high. To clear the rush, we operated extra trains on certain intra-State routes.”
