Bengaluru: More BMTC buses link KR Pura, Baiyappanahalli metro stations

The Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) is running more feeder bus services between KR Pura and Baiyappanahalli to help passengers use the newly opened Whitefield metro line.

About 10,000 people travel by these feeder buses every day, a BMTC official said.

The BMTC started non-air-conditioned feeder buses between KR Pura and Baiyappanahalli metro stations on March 25 and air-conditioned services on March 28. In the early days, five buses made 160 trips a day.

This number has now risen to 396 with eight ordinary non-air-conditioned buses alone making 262 trips a day. The frequency varies from five to 20 minutes depending on the operation time. The remaining 134 trips are made by eight air-conditioned buses (Vajra) with a headway of 5-20 minutes.

As per the schedule released by the BMTC on Thursday, the first ordinary metro feeder bus from the Baiyappanahalli metro station is at 5.50 am and the last at 10.20 pm. From KR Pura, the first metro feeder bus is at 6.05 am and the last at 10.40 pm. The one-way fare is Rs 10.

As for the Vajra (A/C) service, the first bus from Baiyappanahalli departs at 6.30 am and the last at 9.40 pm. From KR Pura, the first Vajra metro feeder bus leaves at 6.05 am and the last at 9.15 pm. The one-way fare is Rs 20.

The ordinary bus route is MF-FDR-1. The Vajra route is V-MF-1K. The BMTC hopes that the increase in feeder bus services brings in more passengers.

The feeder bus services provide a crucial link between the 13.71-km KR Pura-Whitefield and the 25.66-km Kengeri-Baiyappanahalli lines. They will remain indispensable until the 2.1-km Baiyappanahalli-KR Pura metro line opens in the next few months.

While the BMTC claims to run more buses during the morning and evening rush hour, a passenger who took the metro from Whitefield to KR Pura on Wednesday evening found that this wasn’t the case. She had to wait at least 10 minutes for a feeder bus to Baiyappanahalli.