RTC buses give 'political mileage'; commuters wait the extra minute in Karnataka

Road Transport Corporations (RTCs) are preparing to rent out thousands of buses for political rallies and election-related work as Karnataka officially enters the poll season.

The state government has fixed charges for hiring RTC buses and private vehicles. KSRTC, BMTC, NWKRTC and KKRTC buses will cost Rs 57.5 per km or up to Rs 11,500 per day. Private buses will cost Rs 43.5 per km or up to Rs 8,700 per day in Bengaluru. Elsewhere, their rentals will be Rs 42.5 per km or up to Rs 8,200 per day.

RTC buses will be in demand to ferry citizens to the 50-odd political rallies Karnataka will see in the next six weeks. They will also be an essential means of transport for personnel moving from one polling station to another.

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The renting of KSRTC and BMTC buses might affect regular services.

Last week, many passengers complained about fewer bus services in Bengaluru. On March 26, BMTC rented 1,350 buses for a political rally. The same day, 2,000 KSRTC buses were booked for a political rally in Mysuru. The KSRTC has 8,100 buses and the BMTC 6,758 buses.

“We cannot say no if someone seeks our buses under a casual contract. But we make sure there are enough buses for regular services,” a KSRTC official said. To service casual contract customers, the KSRTC takes buses from its reserve pool (6% of the total fleet) and off-road buses (1-2% of the fleet). It also diverts buses from depots with low demand, the official added.

The KSRTC will face a problem when 2,000 or more buses are requisitioned, the official said.

While buses given under casual contracts are a fraction of the BMTC’s fleet, the transport corporation received a large number of requests on March 24 and 26 when more than 1,000 buses were rented out. “There was unusual demand but we ran extra buses to minimise inconvenience to regular passengers. There wasn’t any problem on Sunday (March 26) because there was no demand from students and office-goers,” a BMTC official said.

The BMTC goes for planned cancellations on Sundays. It cuts bus schedules by 10-15%, especially on high-density corridors such as the Outer Ring Road, Majestic to Nelamangala and Mysuru Road.

BMTC Managing Director G Sathyavathi denied bus shortage complaints. “The frequency is actually high. On Sundays, we shut some routes because of low passenger footfall and staff leave,” she said.