37 new feeder buses to connect Bengaluru's K R Pura metro station from Oct 9

With the Baiyappanahalli-KR Pura metro section opening on Monday, the BMTC will run 37 feeder buses to provide last-mile links to Silk Board Junction and other areas. 

The corporation will run the bus services on two new routes: 1) KR Pura metro station to Silk Board Jn; 2) KR Pura metro station to KR Pura metro station. 

Twenty-two Volvo Vajra buses will be deployed between KR Pura and Silk Board Jn, said G T Prabhakar Reddi, BMTC's Deputy Chief Traffic Manager. The second route will see 15 ordinary services. 

The KR Pura-Silk Board Jn feeder bus service route will cover the Outer Ring Road via Marathahalli and Iblur. 

The second route will pass through Marathahalli, Kundalahalli, ITPL and Garudacharpalya, another official said. 

The feeder buses will make 300-350 trips every day. The headway will be 8-10 minutes between KR Pura and Silk Board Jn, and 5-10 minutes on the other route. The first bus will depart at 5.40 pm and the last at 10-30 pm or 11 pm. 

"We will start the services tomorrow but the headway will stabilise only on Tuesday," Reddi told DH. The buses will serve people working in tech parks along the ORR. 

The BMTC also wants the civic authorities to restore the bus priority lane along the ORR. The Vajra service between KR Pura and Silk Board Jn takes 70 minutes, which can be reduced by 15 minutes with the bus lane. The road should also be improved, he added. 

The KR Pura-Silk Board Jn is one of the high-density routes for the BMTC, which already runs 315 buses along ORR, covering Silk Board Jn, KR Puram, Hebbal and Goraguntepalya. Of these, 100 are Vajra services and 215 ordinary ones. The Vajra services cost Rs 90 per kilometre but earn only Rs 65-70.

The second official said variable gap funding had been sought from Namma Metro to make up for the losses.