The great exodus from City

The great exodus from City
DH News Service, Bangalore:
Wednesday was a day of great exodus from the City. Those heading home to celebrate Deepavali and holidayers thronged bus and train stations.


The Majestic area was a sea of humanity.

KSRTC alone has pressed into service 1,000 extra buses from November 7 to 11 to accommodate the rush.

Travellers thronged the Kempegowda and Mysore Road termini, as well as the train reservation counters at Jayanagar, Indira Nagar Malleswaram and Yeshwantpur.

Tickets to some of the destinations come at a premium. There has been a 30 per cent fare hike to destinations like Chennai, Coimbatore, Pondicherry and Hyderabad and a 20 per cent hike to Tirupathi and Dharmastala, said a KSRTC official. “The traffic pattern is typically heavy at the beginning of the holidays, then there is a lull followed again by heavy traffic at the end of it. As many buses will be coming back empty we had to hike the fares,” he said.

Even private bus operators such as Kamat, Canara Pinto, and Sharma said there has been an increase of 20 to 30 per cent in bookings to Mysore, Mangalore, Kundapur, Hubli, Dharwad as well as to Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

The South Western Railways is running a number of holiday specials to all major destinations.

One fallout of the rush was the gridlock created by all sorts of vehicles. The logjam stretched for miles in and around the Majestic area. The ripple effects were felt far and wide.