After a gap of almost three-and-a-half years, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has shifted some of its services from Majestic to Basaveshwara Bus Terminal at Peenya. With this move, the corporation hopes to give another lease of life to the bus terminal, which was seen as a ‘dead investment’ all these years. The Corporation had spent nearly ₹40 crore to build the station, which remains underutilised.
In September 2014, KSRTC had shifted a large number of its services to the Peenya station, but did a U-turn within six months after incurring a revenue loss of ₹12 crore in that period.
Now, KSRTC seems ready for another attempt to decongest Majestic. On Thursday, it announced that some of the buses to Hubballi, Shivamogga, Tumakuru, Dharmasthala, Hasan, Davangere, Raichur, Pavagada, Koppal and Mangaluru, among other places, would start from Peenya.
KSRTC is confident that it will not incur losses this time. “Shifting some of the services to Peenya will benefit passengers in several ways. The fare will come down by at least ₹15, travel time will reduce by an hour, as passengers can avoid city traffic, and the location is convenient for people living in the northern parts of the city,” said an official.
The corporation has made many attempts to make the terminal commercially viable. It had even contemplated renting space to hotels and multiplexes, but all the attempts were unsuccessful.
One of the major drawbacks of the terminal was that it is not located near a main road. Passengers find it difficult to access the terminal. To increase passenger traffic, authorities had proposed to build a semi-automated travelator from the terminal to Peenya Industry metro station.
Free shuttle service
The Corporation has decided to operate two free shuttle services from the terminal to Ayyappa temple and the metro station at Jalahalli for the benefit of passengers.
