The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : KSRTC ready for festival rush

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Thursday, Oct 23, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

KSRTC ready for festival rush

Staff Reporter

Those not going out of city told to avoid roads in Majestic

Homesick professionals eager to go home
Frazzled software engineers can’t wait for the break

BANGALORE: One more extended weekend is in store with Deepavali holidays fast approaching. The festival will commence from Naraka Chaturdashi on Monday followed by Deepavali (Lakshmi Puja) on Tuesday and Bali Padyami on Wednesday. This will be the second long weekend in October after Dasara holidays.

While the State government employees will have holidays on Monday (Naraka Chaturdashi) and Wednesday (Bali Padyami), employees of many IT companies have a holiday on Wednesday. Starting from Sunday, employees have the luxury of enjoying four days of holiday if they avail one or two days’ leave in between. Although some may have decided to stay at home, many have planned their outings already. Radhakrishna M.R., a native of Chitradurga who has moved his family including parents to Bangalore, said he could spend a few days with the family, as otherwise being a software engineer, he had very little time. He was planning trip to a water body, in the vicinity.

Arun Kumar Hegde, a mechanical engineer, has planned a long trip to his native place near Sirsi, where he can enjoy the holiday with his parents and relatives in his village, Oorthota. “I have to attend marriages of my close relatives also, and this extended weekend has come in handy,” Mr. Hegde said.

However, for nature lovers like Surendra Gowda, a government employee, the holidays are a good time to visit a beauty spot and chill out. He is planning to explore Uttara Kanada district. “The weather is pleasant after the monsoon and it is the right time to enjoy the water falls,” he said.

Like every other pre-festival days, the Majestic area housing the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) central bus station and the City Railway Station, is bound to witness traffic jams with the KSRTC pushing over 700 additional buses to cater to the festival rush. However, the congestion could be a tad less as the KSRTC has already shifted operations of nearly 400 buses bound towards Mysore and Tamil Nadu to the Mysore Road and Shanthinagar Terminals respectively. While planning to deploy additional traffic police personnel to handle the weekend rush in the central business district, the City Traffic Police have urged people other than those going out of Bangalore not to take roads leading to and out of Majestic on Friday and Saturday.

Those using Majestic as a thoroughfare have been requested to use alternative roads.

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