Just a hop and skip away

With the monsoons playing hide and seek in namma City, the weather couldn’t be better for some sight-seeing. However, going from one place to another in the City could be quite a hassle, especially with the confusing routes and the ever-growing traffic.

Solving this problem is the ‘BMTC Bengaluru Rounds: Hop-On Hop-Off’, a bus that connect various tourist attractions of Bangalore. 

The white buses with drawings of the Vidhana Soudha and Lal Bagh are sure to catch your attention in different parts of the City.

As beautiful as they look on the outside, they are as comfortable on the inside. This set of seven branded A/C Volvo buses cover 20 landmarks of great historic and religious significance like the Vidhana Soudha, Lal Bagh, Tipu’s Palace, Bull Temple, Gurudwara, Halasuru Lake, ISKCON and St Mary’s Basilica to name a few.

For the youngsters, the route also involves places like Fun World, Bangalore Central, Garuda Mall, Mantri Mall and Orion Mall. 

People can catch these buses from locations like the MG Road Metro Station and Majestic Bus Stand. Once they reach their destination, they can explore the place at their pace, come out and wait for the next bus to come.  

 It’s been around three weeks since these buses were introduced and they are finding many takers among both tourists as well as locals. Jessica and Sarita, two interns at the Indian Institute of Human Settlements, are from New York and Cape Town respectively and enjoyed travelling by these buses. “We took one from Sadashivnagar,” recalls Sarita.

 “We got down at ISKCON and really enjoyed seeing the temple. But the problem was that we had to wait for a long time for the next bus, which took us to Tipu’s Palace. Post that, we ended up waiting for one hour. So we didn’t go any further than that.” Her friend Jessica adds, “The buses are really nice.

The concept is really good and the conductor reads out a description of each of the places.” Though one has to wait for a while before the next one comes, we can see a place at our own pace. There are clear signs of where you have to board.”

And it’s not just outsiders who enjoy hopping on these buses. Pushpa, a teacher who resides near ISKCON, was more than happy to take a ride too.

 “It’s a really good experience. There are so many places to see in Bangalore but we don’t know the routes to all. Despite the long wait for a bus, the experience is truly worth it,” she says. 

Hanumanth, a polite driver on the bus, explains that the buses are supposed to come at each stop every 30 minutes. “However, because of traffic, it takes 40 minutes sometimes. But the good part is that people can see whatever they want to see without being hurried. The prices have also been brought down now,” he explains.    
 Though the prices of the tickets were Rs 250 and Rs 150 for adults and children respectively, they have been slashed down to Rs 150 and Rs 100 now. The ticket also provides for free travel for the day in all BMTC services except the Airport (Vayu Vajra) services, thus ensuring last-mile connectivity at no extra cost.

So catch these buses for a wonderful tryst with the history of the City. The friendly conductor and driver in each of these will provide you all the details that you need to know about namma Bengaluru. The buses ply on all days of the week from 8.30 am to 10 pm. For details, visit http://www.mybmtc.­com/bangalore-rounds