Karnataka SRTC hopes to carry 5 lakh Dasara visitors

As against the 3.5 lakh commuters it carried last year, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has planned its schedules and special schedules to carry five lakh passengers for the ongoing Dasara here.

The maximum number of passengers will travel to and from Mysore on the last two days of the historic festivities "� October 1 and October 2, Ayudha Pooja and Vijaya Dashami days.

As many as 450 buses, comprising of 40 Volvo buses, 26 Raja Hamsa, three Mayura, 10 semi-deluxe, 64 non-stop and 300 express will operate from different destinations to Mysore, 175 additional buses are deployed on 14 routes in addition to regular services, and 645 trips are being made between Mysore and Bangalore.

From Bangalore, 150 additional buses are pressed into service. One express every 2 minutes, one Volvo every 20 minutes, one Mayura and Raja Hamsa every half hour will operate from September 29.

Giving these details, KSRTC director Raghavendra Rao told reporters that special city circuit 'hop-in, hop-off' buses to take visitors to tourist spots on a daily pass of Rs 20 every 30 minutes and special package tours to tourist places around Mysore are operating in the city.

In addition to the functional enquiry counters at the bus station, the KSRTC has opened an information centre at the bus stand and distributing tour brochures at 20 information centres set up by the district administration in the city.

It has modernised the Channapatna bus stand and KSRTC buses plying between Mysore and Bangalore will henceforth stop there, while the buses coming from the opposite direction will stop at Maddur as usual. This measure is to reduce the pressure being witnessed at the Maddur bus stand, chief marketing officer Nagaraja Rao said.

The KSRTC has proposed to take the Bangalore-bound Mysore buses up to BMTC, Shivaji Nagar, Yelahanka and other points in Bangalore for the convenience of those destination-commuters.

All the bus stands in Mysore are being renovated, Mysore divisional controller Ashok Kumar added.