KSRTC says ‘bring your own bottle’, passengers say cheers!

BENGALURU: The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has decided to stop giving plastic water bottles on its premium AC services on long-distance routes.

The move is part of a KSRTC campaign, ‘Bring Your Own Bottle’, to encourage passengers to adopt reusables and avoid single-use plastics. KSRTC received a tremendous response to its campaign over the last one month when it asked people to post a selfie with their own bottle, tagging KSRTC.

“We as a corporation need to set an example. Officers from the corporation and environmentalists held a meeting and decided to stop single-use plastics.

The meeting came up with the idea of hosting a selfie contest which would attract people. We received a very good response and people posted a number of selfies with own bottles,” a senior KSRTC official told Deccan Chronicle.

The contest was held in three categories (children, middle aged and senior citizens).

The winners will be awarded with a free travel in KSRTC’s premier services on an identified route.

The transport corporation has also decided to set up a task force for effective disposal of waste generated at stalls at bus stations, canteens and other places.

KSRTC was giving water bottles on its 300 services out of its 8,800-bus fleet. All the three corporations – KSRTC, Northeast KRTC and Northwest KRTC – were providing water bottles in 450 buses.

It led to dumping of over 1.20 crore water bottles per year. From now on, the corporations will stop providing water bottles.

Also taking a cue from the South Western Railway (SWR), the corporation has installed a sanitary napkin incinerator and napkin vending machine at the Kempegowda bus station in Majestic.