‘City tour bus’ to re-start services again?

Mangaluru: Three years have passed since the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC) stopped the ‘City Tour Bus’ for tourists to visit the major tourist locations in Mangaluru and now, due to the great demand from the people for the service, there are signs depicting the possible restart of the services.

Mangaluru city is developing as a Smart City and the number of tourists arriving to karavali is increasing by the day. In that too, Mangaluru is being converted to become a favourite destination for tourists from abroad. Accordingly, in order to attract the tourists, beach festival, river festival, surfing, international kite festival and various other programmes are being organized.

Presently in Mangaluru, if the arriving tourists do not have their own vehicle, they are compelled to pay high prices to visit tourist attractions by booking contract vehicles. Due to this reason, the district office of the tourism department has decided to send a request to the state office to restart the ‘City Tiur Bus’ services.

Along with this, if the representatives of the people also exert some pressure on the state government in this concern, the tour bus services for tourist attractions in the city may be re-started in a few days.

Services were available in 2016

On April 17^th, 2016, the then tourism minister R V Deshpande had flagged off the KSTDC bus service at a function held at Dr Shivaram Karanth Nisargadhama in Pilikula. Initially, there was a good response to the service. By the end of the monsoon season, a few parts of the bus encountered problems. In a few days, the bus was taken to Bengaluru after which the bus never run in Mangaluru.

Earlier, a similar KSTDC bus had been started from Lalbhag travelling via Kudroli, Kadri, Mangaladevi Temple, St Aloysius Chapel, Pilikula Nisargadhama, Biological park, Tannirbavi Tree Park, beach and back to Lalbhag. There was a rule that the bus should have at least 10 passengers and the ticket price was Rs 190 for adults and 10% discount for students.

The government’s attention will be attracted

Karavali tourism is developing. Domestic and international tourists are arriving here. Attempts will be made to draw the state government’s attention towards restarting KSTDC City Tour Bus services. – MLA Vedavyas Kamath

To be brought to the notice of the officials

KSTDC touring bus was functioning in Mangaluru a few years ago. The service was stopped due to lack of tourist numbers. In order to restart the service, the issue will be brought to the notice of the state tourism department officials – Sudheer Gowda, Tourism Department Consultant