Bengaluru: 37 BMTC feeder buses to bridge last-mile gap between KR Puram Metro station and Outer Ring Road

The move also came in the wake of the ‘personal2public’ campaign launched by Prof Rajeev Gowda, vice chairman of the State Institute For Transformation of Karnataka (SITK). The campaign encourages residents to switch to public transport at least twice a week in order to reduce traffic congestion and pollution.

The buses will operate on two routes. Route 1 feeder buses will ply from KR Puram metro station to Silk Board via Marathahalli-Kadubeesanahalli-Iblur at a frequency of five minutes during peak hours and eight minutes during non-peak hours.

Route 2 buses will travel from KR Puram station and back via Marathahalli-Kundalahalli-Garudacharpalya at a frequency of five minutes and 10 minutes during peak and non-peak hours, respectively.

While Metro feeder buses answer the challenge of last-mile connectivity, the launch of feeder buses also aims to reduce traffic on the ORR and encourage Metro use, said transport experts.

#WATCH | Bengaluru, Karnataka: Karnataka Transport Minister and Congress leader Ramalinga Reddy says, “More and more people should travel in the metro… That’s why we are providing connectivity… To provide last-mile connectivity, we have to give more buses… We are planning… pic.twitter.com/GPnRTOL0qh

— ANI (@ANI) October 11, 2023

According to the BMRCL, the Baiayappanahalli-Whitefield section recorded a ridership of 61,179 on October 9 and 72,712 on October 10. Earlier, this section used to record an average daily ridership of around 28,000.

While traveling in one of the newly inaugurated feeder buses, the transport minister said, “We want more people to travel in the metro… by deploying more feeder buses. We are also planning to purchase 2,000 more buses this year. There will be a lot of changes in the next six months for the BMTC.”