BENGALURU: Commuters travelling in Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) AC buses will soon get better facilities, including free Wi-Fi, water bottles and newspapers.
However, all buses, including ordinary ones, as well as bus stations will have free Wi-Fi facility. The corporation has recently finalised a tender for providing Wi-Fi facility in nearly 18,000 buses in the KSRTC, NWKRTC and NEKRTC. Speaking to Express, KSRTC managing director S R Umashankar said that 8,300 odd KSRTC buses will have free Wi-Fi facility in a phased manner. At present, free Wi-Fi facility is available in 24 bus stations in the state. Now, the corporation is also planning to increase it to 458 in the city.
KSRTC, which has stopped providing free bottled water for passengers travelling in long-distance premium AC buses, will again start providing it.
KSRTC officials said they will also provide free newspapers in premium AC buses for the passengers travelling between 5am and 11am. Nearly 4,500 newspapers are expected to be distributed to the passengers.
KSRTC is also planning to fix FASTags on windscreens of its 8,317 buses, which will allow swifter passage through a dedicated FASTag lane without stopping at toll booths. For instance, on the Bengaluru-Mumbai route, there are nearly 20 toll booths where vehicles, including KSRTC buses, have to halt to pay toll.
Once FASTags is implemented, commuters on the Bengaluru-Mumbai route can save at least one hour of the total 17-hour journey. KSRTC buses operate through 60 toll plazas across Karnataka and southern states and pay Rs 5 crore a month as toll fee. With FASTag, the transport service could save Rs 10-16 crore every year. Sources said new additional facilities, including Wi-Fi and FASTags, which were initiated by former KSRTC managing director Rajender Kumar Kataria, will attract more passengers to KSRTC.