JOIN US Bandh disrupted travel plans of the residents of the City and others on Saturday as more than 6,000 BMTC buses and over one lakh autos remained off road till 4 pm.
Only after 4 pm, BMTC resumed its service and plied 2673 schedules. Similarly, KSRTC did not run any buses in the morning and plied about 3,000 schedules out of the total 7,700 schedules after 4 pm. The KSRTC suffered a loss of Rs 4 crore due to suspension of services in the morning. The BMTC officials said that the loss of revenue owing to non-plying of buses on Saturday could only be ascertained on Sunday.
While a few of the BMTC buses did ply in the morning, many passengers were made to alight from the buses near Kempegowda Bus Station by members of some of the pro-Kannada organisations and after that no buses left the depots till 4 pm. The people getting down at the City Railway station were in for a tough time as the prepaid taxi stand at the station was also closed.
Even the Metro trains plied at a frequency of 20 minutes instead of the usual ten minutes owing to a low passenger volume on Reach 1 and Reach 3 and 3A. Metro trains had only 50 percent ridership of what it usually is on regular Saturdays. Metro officials said that normally, on Saturdays, 25,000-30,000 people travel on each Reach. Even after 6 pm, the trains were running at a frequency of 15 minutes instead of the usual 10-minute frequency.
BMRCL officials said that additional security was deployed at all the stations to avoid any law and order situations. Metro stations functioned under half-downed shutters till 6 pm on Saturday.
The otherwise busy roads in the central business district wore deserted look till evening as shops, restaurants and all commercial establishments remained shut. The story was no different in Indiranagar, Jeevan Bhima Nagar, C V Raman Nagar and other parts of the City.