The bypass road of the Mysuru-Bengaluru 10-lane expressway from Induvalu village to Amaravathi hotel opened for the public three days.
As a result, the highway passing through Mandya city is wearing a deserted look. Most importantly, hotels that were dependent on passengers who were stopping by are facing losses to the tune of 80 per cent.
Vehicular density has reduced drastically on the highway and junctions in Mandya city like Kallahalli Circle, Court Circle, Sanjay Circle and Factory Circle now wear a deserted look.
As 70 per cent of the vehicles now ply via the bypass, business activities on the highway have been hit.
The highway used to be congested during weekends. Traffic near Sanjay Circle required 10 to 15 minutes to clear. But now, only the residents of the city have been using the stretch.
Earlier, a few of the non-stop buses used to pick passengers from Mandya. That’s not possible now as the non-stop buses and the Flybus services from Mysuru to Bengaluru airport besides Volvo buses take the bypass road.
With the number of buses on the Mysuru-Bengaluru route reducing, passengers have to wait for more than 15 minutes to travel to their destinations on the route, up from five minutes earlier. They find it difficult to find seats in the buses too.
Hotels on the highway that were dependent on passengers travelling between the two cities are now facing losses.
“We are bracing for the losses, as most of the buses skip Mandya,” the hotel owners said.
Ravi Acharya of Haripriya Hotel said business is down by 80 per cent.
There were passengers regularly visiting hotels serving ‘nati’ style non-vegetarian food. These hotels too have recorded a dip in the number of customers.
Petrol bunks and bars too have been affected and business has come down by 70 per cent, it is said. The dip in business has approximately affected more than 10,000 people selling jaggery, vegetables, greens, tender coconuts, besides those running small canteens and roadside vendors.