Bengaluru: An early increase in the ridership of public transport

Bengaluru: BMTC buses and Metro services are witnessing an improvement in ridership as the days pass.

On Monday, BMTC’s daily passenger number was 4.7 lakh which increased to 8 lakh on Tuesday. Thus, the ticket collection also rose from Rs 45 lakh to Rs 91 lakh. More than 3,000 BMTC buses are plying on roads between 6 am and 7 pm. The daily ridership of the same had decreased from 36 lakh in February 2020 to nearly 24 lakh on April 26 this year.

Namma Metro’s ridership increased from 41, 870 on Monday to 47,540 on Tuesday. Presently, it is operating only during peak hours which is between 7 am- 11 am and 3 pm-6 pm. Before the pandemic, metro services were between 5 am and midnight and its daily ridership was nearly 5 lakh.

KSRTC officials informed that its ridership and ticket revenue increased from 1.1 lakh and 54 lakh respectively, on Monday to 2.2 lakh and Rs 1.2 crore on Tuesday. KSRTC had resumed intrastate services except in Mysuru and Dakshina Kannada. It is also operating interstate services to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Some experts are of the view that transport sectors are less likely to regain the old figures amid the pandemic this time because the working population are still following the work from home tradition. Even after the reopening of private offices, most people prefer to commute in private vehicles due to the fear of contracting the virus.

In the meantime, BMTC had decided to operate Vayu Vajra airport services on two more routes from Thursday. The routes are KIA to Banashankari TTMC and KIA to Mysuru Road Bus Station. A total of 25 buses are now operational.