HUBLI: After forcing long-route private buses to go off the roads 10 months ago, the North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) now wants to stop the Bendre Nagara Sarige, popularly called Bendre buses, from plying between Hubli and Dharwad.
By doing so, the NWKRTC seems to be trying to thwart competition and monopolise the public transport in the region despite having several loopholes in its services.
The reasons the NWKRTC is putting forth to defend its demand are: One, the private buses are eating into its pie and two, the BRTS project which is currently under construction should be facilitated.
The NWKRTC is also claiming to be well equipped to handle the passengers buses if Bendre buses are taken off the road. But the past experience doesn’t match NWKRTC’s claim. It made similar claims in case of private contract carriage buses. But even 10 months after these buses stopped plying, the NWKRTC has not put enough buses, thus causing great deal of inconvenience to commuters.
In all, 260 buses are being operated by three major transporters - Rani Chennamma, Samrat and RR Bus Services in the jurisdiction of the NWKRTC. Of them 180 buses used to run from Hubli to various destinations like Belgaum, Bijapur, Davangere, Gadag, Ilkal and Karwar. These buses used ply till late in the night for passengers’ convenience.
On it’s part, the NWKRTC added only 100 buses on the routes where private buses used to ply. But it is claiming to have met the demand.
‘We are running 100 additional buses. The Bijapur division of NEKRTC is plying 20 buses from Bijapur to Belgaum and Hubli. So there is no problem of buses”, says NWKRTC chief traffic manager S V Hulyalkar.
But passengers’ wait at bus stations has become longer as there is no alternative mode of transportation. “Those who want to travel late night are facing more problem as there will be no NWKRTC buses during late hours,’’ said Mallikarjun Kamatar of Kushtagi.
Another telling example of NWKRTC’s failure is the bad condition of non-stop buses that ply between Hubli and Belgaum. These buses often break down in the middle of the journey leaving passengers stranded for hours. The authorities have been so far been mute spectators.
What they say
Stopping private buses is a conspiracy. People get around `5-6 lakh as commission on purchase of every bus. This could be the reason for their anger at private buses
— Palaniyappan,
Proprietor, Rani Channamma Bus Service
Envied by our growth, the government stopped our buses. With hard work, we had converted all routes profitable
— Subramanyam,
Proprietor, RR Bus Services