Strike partially affects transport services in City

The nationwide strike on Wednesday partially affected transport services in the City for most part of the day with the government-run BMTC buses staying off the roads and very few autorickshaws plying.

Commuters, mainly officegoers, had a tough time reaching their workplaces. While many shared car rides with their colleagues, others worked from home. Consequently, the few autorickshaws and cabs which plied made a fast buck by overcharging passengers. Some cab aggregators also made a killing by levying a surcharge 2.7 times the fare in the afternoon.

Autorickshaws charged anywhere between Rs 150 and Rs 250 extra for ferrying people to their destinations. Some passengers said they shelled out Rs 350-450 for a trip from Majestic to Magadi Road and Rs 800-900 from Majestic to Electronic City.

Many IT companies allowed their employees to work from home, especially those who depend on BMTC buses to travel to their workplaces. Tech parks, including Bagmane, EGL Domlur and Manyata, looked deserted owing to the absence of dedicated bus services. Several other companies had made alternative transport arrangements for their employees to reach the office on time.

Sandeep, an employee of Infosys, Electronic City, residing in BTM Layout said, “Since our office timings are long, I was scared of any untoward incident.

So, my colleagues and I decided to work from home.”Sudipto, a resident of Indiranagar who had to reach Hebbal for a family event, hired an app-based taxi and ended up spending double the usual fare.

Nationalised banks, post offices and other Central government offices remained shut.
The BMTC and KSRTC resumed their services by 4.30 pm. BMTC managing director Ekroop Caur said, “We lost most of the morning shift but have put our afternoon and night shift buses into operation. By 5 pm, 60-70 per cent of the fleet was out and operational.”

However, losses could not be calculated immediately. “We will know by tomorrow as we have to take into account the revenue generated by our evening services,” she said.
The BMTC has a fleet of 6,429 buses and earns Rs 4.88 crore in revenue every day.

Similarly, even the KSRTC had started services by around 5pm. Only 566 schedules out of a total of 5,099 had begun operations. The losses suffered by the KSRTC also could not be ascertained. On an average, the KSRTC earns about Rs 8.2 crore daily.
Namma Metro, which operated throughout the day, saw a slight increase in its ridership with 9,490 passengers between 6 am and 8 pm on Reach 1, and 16,007 passengers on Reach 3 (A, B).

Stone-pelting

While no untoward incident was reported, a senior police officer, however, said that around 12 cases had been registered against people who pelted the buses with stones, at various police stations in the City. While the BMTC registered 10 cases, the KSRTC registered two such cases. “We have been taken up the cases and will obtain CCTV footage to nab the miscreants,” the officer said.

Water supply hit

Water supply in some parts of the City was also hit as most of the tankers which supplied water to apartment dwellers joined the strike.