The Bangalore Traffic Police on Thursday came to the aid of hundreds of commuters stranded by the bus strike by arranging free transport in police vans.
After hours of frustrating wait for the elusive BMTC buses, passengers at the Shivajinagar, K.R. Market and Kempe Gowda bus stands were relieved to see police vans arriving to ferry them to various destinations.
Fraser Town Police Inspector R.L. Kasim, who was overseeing the operations at the Shivajinagar bus stand, told The Hindu that 17 police buses had been commissioned from 3 p.m. to transport commuters to six locations each from the three terminuses.
Many police personnel were deployed to guide the passengers to the police vehicles. The police said that their buses operated from Shivajinagar bus stand to Kempegowda bus stand, K.R. Market, Neelsandra, Ulsoor, Fraser Town and R.T. Nagar.
Another set operated from Kempegowda bus stand to Yeshwanthpur, Malleswaram, Vijayanagar, Deepanjalinagar, Basavanagudi and Jayanagar.
The third set operated from K.R Market bus stand to Madiwala, Mysore Road Satellite bus stand, Jayanagar, Banashankari, Shantinagar and Rajajinagar.
Police personnel were also monitoring auto services near the bus stands.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) B.S Lokesh Kumar said Friday’s services depended on the strike situation.