The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation on Tuesday said it will operate 1,000 additional buses during the Deepavali festival. The agency has also decided to operate interstate and intrastate buses to several locations from Bengaluru Between November 13 and November 16.
The special buses will exclusively ply from Bengaluru Kempegowda Bus Station to Dharmasthala, Kukke Subrahmanya, Shivamogga, Hassan, Mangaluru, Kundapura, Sringeri and Tirupati, the KSRTC said in a statement.
Special buses from Mysuru Road Bus Station will exclusively ply towards Mysuru, Hunsur, Piriyapatna, Virajpet, Kushalnagar and Madikeri.
All premier special buses will be start from Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation Bus Station at Shantinagar. These buses will head to Tirupati, Vijayawada, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam and other places in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala.
Tickets can be booked online and advance reservation of tickets for the special and scheduled buses of KSRTC can be booked through 706 counters within Karnataka and in other states.
KSRTC officials said that after the lockdown in March, the demand for travel in buses reduced drastically due to fear of contracting the coronavirus. However, the officials said that with the festival approaching, the demand is slowly picking up.
“Of the 1,000 additional buses, seats in over 200 are already booked. These are mostly from Bengaluru to Mangaluru, Bengaluru to Shivamogga, Bengaluru to Belagavi. Travel to Goa is also in demand,” a KSRTC official said.