Though the government allowed KSRTC buses to ply within the State from Tuesday, the presence of passengers at the central bus stand here was minimal. More buses and transport staff were seen than passengers.
Several conductors and drivers were sitting and waiting for the arrival of passengers to start their work.
“ I have parked the bus since 7 a.m., and now it is 10 a.m., still no passengers”, said one of the drivers who was scheduled to carry passengers to Jamkhandi town of Bagalkot district.
He said that on normal days, the frequency of buses from Vijayapura bus stand to Jamkhandi was every 15 minutes. “ Drivers were waiting hardly for 15 minutes at the stand before departing to Jamkhandi because of large numbers of passengers. Today, it has been nearly three hours, still no passenger”, said the driver.
He said that the government has directed the staff to carry only 30 passengers in each bus, but the staff was not getting even that number to start the trip.
Similar was the situation of other drivers who were waiting for passengers to carry to other parts of the district.
Divisional Controller Gangadhar said that some 250 buses with around 1,000 staff have been deployed for work in the district.
The transport staff believes that post lockdown, most of the people have already reached their homes.
“They were coming here either for some business, work, hospital treatment or to attend some function. Since most of the activities are suspended, the people are not coming out. It will take some time for the situation to become normal as lockdown was relaxed just a few days ago”, the official said.
