KSRTC bus door comes unhinged due to rush of women passengers, buses full elsewhere

CHAMARAJANAGAR: The free bus travel scheme for women, the Shakti Yojana, has turned into a big headache for conductors of state-run transport corporations while handling surging crowds  of women passengers in buses.

In an unusual incident, passengers boarding a bus to Male Mahadeshwara Hills (MM Hills) broke the door of a bus as it was overcrowded, in Chamarajanagar on Saturday.

A large number of women passengers were headed to the Male Mahadeshwara Hills for Amavasya (full moon day) on Saturday. There was a massive rush to board the bus that arrived. In the melee, the door was broken when the passengers rushed to board the bus. Due to this, the conductor was worried about the situation since, just a week ago, the Transport Corporation had ordered not to drive the buses without closing the door.

The scene at the Majestic bus stand in Bengaluru.

As a result of the Shakti scheme for free travel, women are visiting pilgrim sites in large numbers. The number of women visiting MM Hills and Dharmastala is increasing. Hence, KSRTC buses are overflowing with passengers. Due to the rush, passengers were seen struggling to board the buses at Kollegala bus stand to go to MM Hills.

Some people who had been waiting since morning could not board the bus due to the passenger rush. Some of them complained that they were forced to wait at the bus station because buses are filled with women passengers.

The scene at the Tumakur bus stand.

Similar was the scene at Shivamogga, Kalaburagi, Tumakuru and Chikkodi and several other districts. The elderly women passengers and students are struggling to board buses due to the increase in the number of women passengers.

Passengers were struggling to board buses at the Athani bus stand in Belagavi district. The Athani-Ananthapura, Athani-Ugara and Athani-Shirahatti buses were full and passengers experienced difficultly in travelling. Most of the buses are getting full due to lack of sufficient numbers of buses and passengers were seen standing on footboard. Some citizens expressed concerns about any untoward incident happening with such a crowd.

The Shivamogga bus stand was crowded with women passengers.

In Kalaburagi, the Transport Department is receiving complaints every day that buses are not available on time. The buses are plying once every three hours on the most frequented routes, women alleged and expressed outrage that they are not getting free bus service.

In Koppal, Gadag and other major towns too, buses were filled by women passengers. They were seen travelling standing precariously on the footboard of the buses.

A large number of women were travelling from Shivamogga to tourist spots in the district. Tourists are travelling from Shivamogga to Dharmasthala, Sringeri, Jog Falls, Sigandhur and other places. There used to be 15-20 passengers on the Sringeri bus every day. But after the implementation of Shakti Yojana, the number of women travellers increased.