Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Sep 1: Boycotting a meeting  in which regional transport authority expressed its intent to allot time table for six Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) express buses with limited stops to Udupi, private bus operators walked out of the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) meeting which was held on Thursday August  31.

At the meeting held at the regional transport office here, private bus owners insisted that KSRTC should not be allowed to run buses on this route. When secretary of the authority, in-charge transport deputy commissioner, G S Hegde, said that their request cannot be upheld in view of pressure from the public and said that he would be fixing time tables for these buses, all the private bus owners, to register their protest at this decision, walked out of the meeting.

In the meanwhile, the RTA reserved its decision on the issue.

KSRTC city division had approached RTA for permit to run six inter-city express buses to Udupi through  an application many years ago. In 2013, RTA granted permits. But because of various pulls and pressures, the process of fixing time tables for these buses for which permits were already given, was being postponed frequently.

At present, other than ten Volvo buses which move from the city to Manipal and back, no other KSRTC express buses are operational on this route. Volvo bus fares are high, and student passes are not allowed in them. Therefore there had been demand for running normal KSRTC buses on this route.