With the extended nightlife in Bangalore, and many people working till late in the night, there is a great demand for public transport in the city in the night. At least that is what a survey by Change.org has revealed.
The volunteers of Change.org did a sample survey this year to find out how many people in Bangalore feel that Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) should extend its services till late in the night to make it easier for people working late or even party-goers go home.
As many as 6,800 people were given a questionnaire seeking responses on whether they travelled by BMTC buses, if so, how often, and whether they think that the BMTC services should be extended till late night.
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According to the survey findings, 80 per cent of the respondents said they used public transport, in particular, BMTC buses regularly. A whopping 98 per cent of them said BMTC buses should be run even after 10 p.m.
To pressure the authorities concerned to take steps to ensure that public transport was made available for people in Bangalore at night, Shashank Kumar, a practising lawyer, has got as many as 13,000 people sign the online petition. The petition seeking extension of BMTC services till midnight will be submitted to the BMTC authorities on Thursday.
According to Mr. Shashank Kumar, the BMTC officials had asked him to get a consolidated data with details of specific routes on which bus services need to be extended. “At present, the BMTC operates 90 buses after 9 p.m. mostly on the outskirts of the city. Through the survey, we found that there is demand from areas within the city as well,” he said.
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Kumar Pushkar, Director, IT, BMTC, told The Hindu that about seven months ago, about 20 per cent buses were rescheduled to operate till 11.30 p.m. “Earlier, our buses were back in the depots by 9 p.m. But on the instruction of the Managing Director, BMTC, 25 per cent buses were rescheduled on important routes. Many of them are in the Kempe Gowda Bus Station (KBS) – ITPB route,” he said.