The palace city of Mysore would have a separate transport corporation, Karnataka Transport Minister R. Ashoka said on Tuesday.
This entity would be on the lines of Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation and the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, Mr. Ashoka told reporters here.
The decision to have a separate corporation for Mysore was taken to meet certain norms that the Centre placed in National Urban Renewal Mission Programme, under which it allotted about 150 buses to the city, which has also attracted World Bank funds for its development, as well as keeping in mind the future development of the city, he said.
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Mr. Ashoka also said Mandya would have city bus services and about 50 buses would be purchased for the purpose. A satellite bus terminal would be built at Peenya to decongest the main hub in Majestic area.
In the main bus city bus stand, 7.2 acres of land had been handed over to the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd for the metro project at a cost of Rs. 75 crore, he added.
The Transport Department has planned to start city bus services in district headquaters such as Tumkur, Gulbarga, Hubli and Mangalore, Mr. Ashoka said.
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Bus stands in Hassan, Bantwal Cross Road and Hunsur would be developed under public-private-partnership model, he added.
The Minister said the KSRTC became debt-free two months ago after clearing a loan amount of Rs. 500 crore.
He said the Traffic & Transit Management Centre at Kengeri here would be named after Kengal Hanumanthaiah, who built the iconic Vidhan Soudha here, while the one at Shantinagar would adorn the name of A.B. Vajpayee.