COVID-19: Bus services between TN-Karnataka vice versa cut due to want of passengers

Bengaluru, Mar 19: Bus services between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and vice versa have been cut down drastically or have been completely stopped in some cases owing to the coronavirus outbreak.

There are no official orders in place to stop bus services, but the decision to cut down the service was taken as there were no passengers or very few passengers plying between the two states.

TNSTC, Dharmapuri has drastically cut down the number of buses that are plying in the Dharmapuri-Krishnagiri-Hosur region. On the other hand the inter-state transport has been stopped completely as there is no passenger traffic. At least 100 buses have been pulled off the road.

KSRTC and BMTC too have limited its operations drastically due to the lack of passengers.

Very few inter-state buses are plying on the roads as there are no passengers. The KSRTC in Chickamagaluru suspended 30 buses. The number of passengers using the buses in the district was at 50,000 a day, but it has come down to 35,000 now, which has caused a loss of Rs 15 lakh a day.

The buses plying between Tamil Nadu and Bengaluru and vice versa have been running literally empty every day. Moreover the lockdown in Bengaluru has affected the passenger flow especially into Krishnagiri and Hosur. The TNSTC in view of the same has decided to cut down the service of more buses.

Meanwhile the TNSTC also stopped services from Nilgiris to Kerala and Karnataka. This is owing to lack of passengers and also the fact that Karnataka and Kerala have reported several cases of COVID-19.

The BMTC said that the curtailment of its services was implemented for routes where multiple schedules operated with high frequency. The BMTC however added that the decision would not cause any inconvenience to to students attending the exams. If the need be additional services would be pressed in, the BMTC also said. While the BMTC decided to curtail 10 per cent of its schedules, it however added the Vayuvajra airport services will operate as usual.

KSRTC said that it would be cancelling only inter-sate night premium services after the ridership reduced by 20 per cent.