Covid impact: Bus fares get cheaper, but few takers

Bengaluru: Travelling out of Bengaluru during the festival season was always an expensive affair as private bus operators would jack up fares as hordes of people from the city would head home to celebrate Diwali every year. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed all that as even two months after the State government relaxed lockdown norms and allowed resumption of bus services, less than 50% of holidaymakers are interested in making the annual Diwali trip home. Normally, private bus operators used to increase fares during this season, but now most of them are not plying vehicles due to lukewarm demand.

As a result, most of the private bus operators have slashed fares drastically. The fares from Bengaluru to Kannur is just Rs 800, Chennai Rs 650 and Hyderabad Rs.700. In recent years, the fares for the same destinations during Diwali used to be Rs 950 , Rs 1,800 and Rs 2000 respectively. The State transport department used to crack the whip on private operators for raising fares every year. But the operators used to claim that they were forced to hike fares to make up for losses they incurred in other seaons of the year. But Covid has come as a huge blow to the calculations of the bus operators. "Over the last two weekends, many Bengalureans could not travel as the entire State was affected by heavy rains and floods. Their plans, if any, have been scuttled by Covid. People still continue to prefer safety to taking risk by undertaking any travel. In my experience, this is the first time bus fares have been lowered during Diwali season. In spite of this, not even 50 per cent of seats in our buses have been booked. Hoping there might be a slight improvement in the situation a couple of days before Diwali," Shivkumar, a traveller, told The Hans India.

On Monday, the Bengaluru division of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) claimed that they were operating only 200 plus buses to Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Kerala, Maharashtra and Telangana. However, it is yet to resume services to Tamil Nadu and Puducherry as the former has not permitted interstate bus services. Earlier, KSRTC used to operate 1,800 plus buses during the festival season.

Speaking to The Hans India, B T Prabhakar Reddy, chief traffic manager, KSRTC said, "There was a good number of passengers during the festival time because a large number of students used to go to their hometowns every year.

But now schools and colleges are closed. So, we are operating only 200 plus buses as of now. If there is any drop, the buses would be sent back to the depots. The buses are operated based on the demand and when the number increases more buses would be pressed into service."

KSRTC has made elaborate arrangements for the Diwali festival and will operate 200 extra buses. Along with interstate buses, special buses are also being operated from Bengaluru Kempegowda bus station and Shanthinagar to Dharmasthala, Kukke Subramanya, Shivamogga, Hassan, Mangaluru, Kundapura, Sringeri, Horanadu, Davanagere, Hubballi, Dharwad, Belagavi, Vijayapura, Gokarna, Sirsi, Karwar, Raichur, Kalaburagi, Ballari, Koppal, Yadgir, Bidar and other places.