The students from Puttur, Sullia, Kadaba, Belthangady, and a few parts of Bantwal taluk in Dakshina Kannada district, who have been facing issues with bus transport, can now heave a sigh of relief, as KSRTC Puttur division has received nine additional Karnataka Sarige buses.
Jayakar B Shetty, divisional controller, KSRTC, Puttur division, said that close to 1.9 lakh passengers travel in the Puttur division, including 70,000–80,000 students. The addition of new buses will help them travel with ease, as the frequency of buses on some of the major routes will go up.
Students, from high school, PU, undergraduate, and studying other courses in rural areas, from the above taluks, had been complaining about skeletal bus services. Students travelling to schools and colleges were inconvenienced, after the state government rolled out the Shakti scheme.
Shetty said that the division has 95,000 to 96,000 female passengers. Among women, close to 15,000-20,000 are students, and a total 50,000 students travel to and fro in the division daily.
“Considering the persistent demand from students and others, the government has provided an additional nine Karnataka Sarige buses. The crew to operate the buses are yet to be deployed. The additional bus service will ease the difficulty of numerous college-going students, who usually find it difficult to travel by bus due to the heavy rush,” said Shetty, adding that the division had issued close to 40,000 bus passes in the last academic year.
“It is likely to increase it this academic year, but the details are not known yet,” he shared.
