BMTC reintroduces ticket system instead of daily pass owing to public outrage

Bengaluru: The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation on Monday reintroduced bus tickets instead of selling daily bus passes worth Rs 70 after facing public outrage.

Apparently to make up for the losses it had suffered during the lockdown, the BMTC had stopped selling the bus tickets from one destination to another and sold only the bus passes of Rs 70 each, which people had opposed.

“We have decided to start the ticket system from one destination to another,” Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi who holds the transport portfolio told reporters on Monday.

The tickets will be sold stage wise as was prevalent before the lockdown, said the Minister.

These tickets will be priced from Rs 5 to a maximum of Rs 30, he added.

According to the BMTC, the ticket system will come into effect from Tuesday.

As the Karnataka government relaxed the lockdown norms, the BMTC started operating buses after a gap of over 50 days.

It introduced a new set of rules for the passengers in view of coronavirus pandemic such as use of masks, social distancing and allowing a maximum of 25 passengers in the buses.

Going a step forward, apparently to make up for the losses it had suffered during the lockdown, the BMTC stopped selling the bus tickets from one destination to another and sold only the bus passes of Rs 70 each.

Using the bus pass, the passengers could travel anywhere across the city.

However, the drawback was that if a passenger has to travel a shortest distance of a half-a kilometre, he or she would have to buy the Rs 70 passes, which previously used to cost a ticket of only Rs 5.