On the eve of polling for the Lok Sabha elections, bus stands in Bengaluru were filled with people wanting to go to their home towns to cast their vote in the districts which go to the polls on Friday. While the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) operated buses on demand, private operators deployed hundreds of extra buses, especially to Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts.
“We have reservation only for buses that go to Mangaluru. As the election is happening in two phases, we have not particularly deployed extra buses. The demand is only for places in South Karnataka, excluding Shivamogga and Davangere. Hence, buses will be running as per demand,” said a senior official from the KSRTC. Some BMTC buses have also been deployed for the movement of election officials.
Private bus operators reported that they had seen at least a 25 to 30% increase in travellers for this election when compared with the Assembly elections. “We have seen a lot of reservations for Udupi, Mangaluru, and Madikeri for this election weekend. In fact, we have deployed 300 extra buses to Udupi and Mangaluru,” said Nataraj Sharma, president of the Federation of Karnataka State Private Transport Association.
However, despite the availability of buses, commuters were unhappy with the slight rise in the ticket fares in private buses. The fares were north of ₹3,000 for AC buses to Mangaluru and Udupi on many private websites as of Thursday morning. Even for short distances, the price was higher by 15-20%.
“Private bus timings are more convenient, and we thought it would be emptier than government buses. But the fare was over ₹1,000 to go from Bengaluru to Chitradurga, which is at least ₹200 more than usual. That is why we changed our plans and decided to take the government bus,” said Mahalakshmi G.R., a domestic worker from Yelahanka.
Mr. Sharma denied the fare hike and said that only standard rates were being followed for all daytime routes while the fare was slightly on the costlier side for night buses.
Traffic volume
According to Bengaluru traffic police officials, the movement of people from Bengaluru to other places to cast vote began earlier this week. “A lot of people have already gone (to cast vote) and there was only 40%–50% of the usual crowd on Bengaluru roads on Thursday. However, by night there will be some traffic congestion on outgoing roads as there will be more vehicles on the road,” said M.N. Anucheth, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Bengaluru.
The police had identified Tumakuru Road, Mysuru Road, Outer Ring Road, K.R. Puram, and Electronics City as the roads which will see more traffic volume on Thursday night. “We are in coordination with the KSRTC to ensure that traffic moves out in a gated manner, and we have also deployed additional staff for these routes,” Mr. Anucheth added.
