Ganesha festival rush: No seats available, rates increased in private buses

A passenger heading to Gadag from Bengaluru says that he use to get a ticket for Rs 800 and now due to the festival rush, the rate has jumped to Rs 1200. And those opting to travel on Gowri day, (Sep 9) may have shell out to Rs 1,400.

Depending upon the route the rates per ticket are up by 30 to 40% in intra-state traveling and about 50 to 60% of hike on the ticket is for out of state routes is witnessed during festival season.

Interestingly, the seats are not available as all have been booked in advance through the online platform.

KSRTC comes to passengers' rescue:
Due to all private buses completely booked, as per Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation authorities, it has pressed an additional 1000 buses.

The majority of the travelers are intra-state passengers. Out of 1000 buses, only 200 are reserved and 800 are unreserved for passengers convenience.

Due to restrictions in Kerala and also due to not much demand for this route during the Ganesha festival, the KSRTC's interstate buses are being operated to Andhra-Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Maharashtra and Telangana.

Keeping the safety of all in mind, all passengers are asked to compulsory wear a face mask, carry sanitizers. The KSRTC also does sanitization of its buses and follows all the Covid protocols.

20% of the increase in passengers in intra-state:
KSRTC officials say that after two years about 20% increase has been noticed in passenger travel, however, it is mostly from within the state.

During the Ganesha festival, the traffic from other states was more but due to Covid, the demand now has been drastically reduced.