Election duty: Govt bus transport out of gear

Mangaluru: In the back drop of voting on Tuesday, KSRTC transport throughout Dakshina Kannada district was thrown out of gear and many passengers suffered with the buses failing to come on time.

More than 400 buses in the district were appointed on election duty. More than 389 KSRTC buses leave from Mangaluru division to various destinations daily. This time on April 17^th and 18^th, more than 138 buses were sent for election from Mangaluru 1 and 2 depots. Close to 560 buses function from the Puttur division of which 263 buses were in service.

Those who were in the city from Bengaluru, Mysuru, Chikkamagaluru, Shimoga and other places were seen rushing to KSRTC main bus stand at Bejai in their attempt to return back to their hometowns. The number of buses leaving to BC Road, Dharmasthala, Uppinangady, Chikmagalur, Puttur and other locations was scarce. Since there were only few buses going towards Puttur, some passengers chose to reach their destination through Airavat, Rajahamsa buses going towards Bengaluru by paying expensive fares.

During the last Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, more private and city buses were used for election duty. But during this time’s election, Mangaluru city buses were not appointed on election duty. Hence, city buses functioned as per usual.

Reservation full

Those who have arrived to their hometowns for voting have a string of holidays. April 17 is Mahaveera Jayanthi, Apr 18^th election, Apr 19^th Good Friday, Apr 21^st Saturday and only Apr 20^th is a working day. Most of the buses have already been fully reserved for the return trip on April 21^st. For this very reason, KSRTC has decided to deploy additional buses to Mysuru, Bengaluru and other destinations from Mangaluru, inform officials.