Return of workers: Demand for Bengaluru-bound buses rises

BENGALURU: More people from the districts are travelling to Bengaluru than they did a few weeks ago, said Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), in a potential sign of workers returning to the tech capital.
KSRTC is seeing healthy demand for tickets of Bengaluru-bound buses, especially from north Karnataka. It resumed bookings for travel within Karnataka in May, and is waiting for the Covid-19 situation to ease to ferry people to other parts of the country.Currently, it operates interstate services only on the Andhra route.
“The number of passengers travelling from Bengaluru to other districts has reduced. At the same time, both KSRTC and NEKRTC [North Eastern Karnataka Road Transport Corporation] are seeing more Bengaluru-bound passengers, particularly from north Karnataka,” said BT Prabhakar Reddy, chief traffic manager, KSRTC.
Most passengers travelling to Bengaluru are from Yadgir, Raichur, Kalaburagi and Koppal. “They may be returning as there are better wages and employment opportunities in Bengaluru compared to their districts,” Reddy said. “Traffic from Bengaluru is mainly towards Shivamogga and Mysuru. Many passengers are travelling in buses to Mysuru because of limited train services. Others are traveling to neighbouring districts.”
KSRTC ferried over 1 lakh passengers from Bengaluru to other districts during lockdown. With government easing restrictions in Bengaluru, which was earlier a red zone, many people are returning to the city.
“Skilled workers associated with the construction sector are travelling to Bengaluru as they can earn Rs 500-600 a day on average. There are hardly any jobs in villages and they will struggle to feed their families if they stay back longer,” said Abhay, state coordinator of Grameena Kooli Karmikara Sanghatane, an NGO that mainly works with migrant workers in north Karnataka.
People are not getting adequate work under the rural employment scheme MGNREGA, according to Abhay. “Those who have land are staying back. Many others, who don’t own land and are not getting work under MGNREGA, are moving to Bengaluru. Some plan to travel after monsoon,” he added.
Reddy said while KSRTC had resumed services to Andhra Pradesh, ridership was low. “Both KSRTC and APSRTC [Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation] now operate 150 buses a day. The plan was to operate around 300 buses,” he said.
Meanwhile, South Western Railway now runs train number 06503/06504 between Bengaluru and Mysuru six days a week. It departs from KSR Bengaluru at 6.15pm and reaches Mysuru at 9.05pm. The return journey begins at 6.45am.
“There is a huge demand from passengers travelling from Bengaluru to Mandya and Mysuru during morning hours. SWR should operate a train towards Mysuru by 7am and the return service by 5pm till normal services resume. Many people are using buses because of poor frequency of trains,” said rail activist Krishna Prasad.