With the withdrawal of BMTC services following a call for strike, the city traffic police on Thursday came to the rescue of stranded commuters by operating their vans to drop them to select areas across the city.
For R S Akbar, a teacher in a Government school at Shivajinagar, it was a great relief when a blue police van offered to drop him to Neelasandra. “I was at Shivajinagar bus stand for three hours with no way to go. The auto drivers demanded exorbitant fares. This is the first time I am sitting in a police van and it is a different feeling,” he added.
Another commuter, who travels from Viveknagar for work daily said, she observed autorickshaw carrying more number of passengers at exorbitant fares.
Six police vans were operated to drop commuters from Shivajinagar bus station to Majestic, K R Market, Neelasandra, Ulsoor-CMH Road, Frazer Town, Sevanagar, R T Nagar and Tannery Road.
Eleven other police vans operated from Central Bus Stand, K R Market, Vijayanagar, Malleswaram, Madiwala, Jayanagar, Satellite Bus Terminus, Banashankari and Rajajinagar among other destinations.
More than 1,500 people were dropped to various destinations, the police said. The traffic police had sent SMS alerts to the people for receiving complaints against auto drivers demanding excess charges.
The complaints could be lodged on 080-25588444/ 25588555.