Bengaluru: The Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has suspended all its operations for a week from July 15 to 21, owing to the Covid-induced lockdown here amid rising cases. Only 134 skeletal essential services will be operated, an official said on Tuesday.
“BMTC bus services to the general public are suspended from Wednesday to next Tuesday. However, as per the orders of the government, BMTC will operate essential services for permitted activities during the lockdown period,” said an official from the road transport corporation.
During the lockdown, the city bus service will operate 134 essential services, excluding the containment zones for 12 hours between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Only selected essential services providers working in government departments and others, students attending examinations and those taking trains and flights will be allowed to move out.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has scheduled 1,100 buses on Tuesday to facilitate the homeward journey of many people scrambling to go back.
As many as 20 pick up points have been arranged by the road transport corporation to ferry the passengers to the interior districts.
KSRTC Managing Director Shivayogi C. Kalasad held a video conference on Monday and directed the officials to arrange a sufficient number of buses, so that the public is not inconvenienced.
The transporter is deploying only local drivers and has also deputed senior officers at all the pick up points for smooth operations.
On Monday, the KSRTC operated 1,100 buses to destinations such as Davangere, Hosadurga, Yadgir, Hassan, Kalaburagi, Shivamogga and Pavagada.
It also ran buses to Tirupati and Ananthapur in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, ferrying a total of 32,000 passengers.
Similar to Monday, several migrant workers were also seen in the city on Tuesday, rushing back home.
Many people were seen boarding KSRTC buses with their luggage while some people also made their own arrangements to cram their stuff into auto-rickshaws to reach home.
Several people were seen riding back home on two-wheelers.
On Monday, Karnataka registered 2,738 new COVID-19 cases with the majority of them emerging from Bengaluru, breaching the 40,000 mark for the state’s tally to settle at 41,581, even as 73 people succumbed to the virus.
Bengaluru accounted for the highest number of infections with 1,315 or 48 per cent of the new cases.
With the addition of new cases, the city tally rose to 19,702, out of which 15,052 are active.
Alarmingly, the city alone accounts for 61 per cent of all the active cases in the southern state.
Amid the surging COVID cases daily since July 1, the Karnataka government has decided to re-impose a total lockdown in Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts from July 14 till July 22.
