Bengaluru: BMTC has come to the rescue of commuters travelling at night. The Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation has announced 192 buses meant only for night time services. “Night service (NS) buses will be made available on many routes depending on the demand. They will start at 10 pm and could be run till 1.10 am. There will be a break of around one-and-a-half to two hours and the services will resume by 3.30 am,” said BMTC Managing Director Ekroop Caur.
Now, commuters have very few options for travelling at night. With the Metro stopping its service by 10 pm or 11 pm, and buses too winding up their service around the same time, commuters are left with only cabs and autorickshaws, which charge double and one-and-a-half times the meter fare.
Till now, BMTC ran 90-odd night time services, but with lesser frequency and along only a few routes. “Now, buses will start from Majestic bus-stand once every 15 minutes. Kadugodi, Attibele, Electronics City, Chandapura, Kempegowda Nagar, K.R. Puram, Hebbal and Tin Factory are some of the high-density areas that have a great demand for night time buses," she said. But fewer buses will ply to areas like Yeshwanthpur, Yelahanka and Shivajinagar as the demand is low here.
For Swami B.M., this is a welcome move. “I and my family visit our hometown Chitradurga regularly. When we return late at night, we had to take an autorickshaw or a taxi to our house in Basavangudi. But autos and taxis charge us exorbitantly. With the BMTC night service, we can easily catch a bus from Majestic to our house even at midnight,” said Swami, an engineering student, who also uses buses for everyday commute to his college in Kengeri.
