An average of 4.5 lakh women have been availing free bus rides in KSRTC buses in Mysuru urban and rural divisions since the roll out of Shakti – the first guarantee scheme of the Congress government.
As the guarantee scheme completed one year of its launch, nearly 13.59 crore women in Mysuru have made use of the benefits of the scheme, availing free rides in buses on the inter-city and intra-city routes.
On June 11, 2023, the free bus rides were launched and Mysuru divisions have reported overwhelming response since the roll out. The revenue earned by the divisions by offering free rides was ₹315.6 crore in the last year.
Sources in the KSRTC here said the passenger load continues to rise and about 4.5 lakh women were availing the free rides almost daily. The Shakti scheme led to the strengthening of the existing fleet with the rise in demand for services, even on some routes where the buses had not operated or the reach was minimal.
More buses
Also, thanks to Shakti, the divisions got about 100 new buses, including 50 buses for the urban division which has to cater to the needs of students on the school and college routes.
Shakti also resulted in the launch of services on routes where the KSRTC had minimal operations since the routes were dominated by private transport. | Photo Credit: M.A. Sriram
The number of schedules have also gone up since the launch since the urban division alone operates 520 schedules to cater to the passenger rush. Since January this year, the schedules have gone up by 30 to meet the commuters’ demands, especially students.
The urban division has a fleet of 583 buses, including the newly-inducted hi-tech buses. The addition of new buses has eased the pressure on the KSRTC authorities since the passenger load continues to be on the rise.
For example, on the Nanjangud route, a total of 100 trips are operated daily because of the demand. The temple town is also a tourist place and the commuters are usually more on the route. A total of 12 buses operated 100 trips on the route, the sources add.
More reach
Shakti also resulted in the launch of services on routes where the KSRTC had minimal operations since the routes were dominated by private transport. On Talakad-T. Narasipura-Belakawadi route, new services of round trips have been launched and it has received a good response from the commuters.
Almost all buses operated by the division were running full; some were running exceeding their carrying capacity to deal with the rush of passengers, especially women travelers. This had become challenging for the division as it had to operate the intra-city services with passenger load crossing 100% and the number of commuters continued to rise. The addition of 50 new buses has to a some extent helped to streamline the services.
The Mysuru division had alone sought 120-130 extra buses from the central office for augmenting the existing fleet and ease the pressure on the available resources. Post-Shakti, there were demands for running additional services on most demanding and frequented routes. Such demands had come from students and also residents.
