Bengaluru: Resumption of public transport after two months came as a relief to commuters

Bengaluru: The resumption of BMTC and Namma Metro services from Monday came as a relief to commuters.

BMTC operated 3,154 buses on Monday between 6 am and 7 pm. Due to the shortage of buses, there was chaos at bus terminuses like Majestic. Many passengers fought for seats at the bus station after the arrival of morning trains at KSR Bengaluru City railway station.

K Ravikumar who wants to reach Banerghatta road, said, “If BMTC wants to run buses at 50% capacity, it should operate more. Why can’t it deploy all its buses from 7 am- 11 am and 3 pm-6 pm? It’s unfair to force passengers to wait till the next one arrives.”

According to the sources, BMTC’s decision to permit only fully vaccinated staff led to a shortage of buses. A source said, “Employees who received the first dose were asked to submit a negative RT PCR report. But many could not submit it on time so they couldn’t report for duty.” BMTC managing director, C Shikha said, “There were more passengers in the morning since many intercity buses and trains arrived at almost the same time. Our night schedules were affected due to the curfew on Sunday. But the crowd was less during the evening. We have decided to operate more buses during peak hours.”

The resumption of services was a relief to many passengers. Vijaya Emma who works as a domestic help in Malleswaram said, “I can’t afford to take an auto every day. I used to walk after work. Now, I’m using the April pass. Redemption of bus services is a blessing for those who don’t own vehicles.”

However, on the first day of Unlock 2.0, many coaches in Metro remained empty. BMRCL operated trains from 7 am-11 am and 3 pm- 6 pm at a frequency of five minutes. It witnessed a ridership of nearly 24,602. One of the reasons was the prevalence of work from home and another reason was that only smart card users were permitted to travel in Metros.

Ramesh Kumar who was going to Vijayanagar said, “I feel metro is safer than other modes since they screen passengers. But they should allow tokens since smart card-based travel is expensive.”

Officials expect the ridership to increase in the coming days. Thermal scanning, wearing of masks, proper sanitisation and social distancing was followed.