Bengaluru: Passengers can now access free wi-fi while travelling in 1,025 Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) buses. These buses from Bengaluru, Bengaluru Rural and Mysuru divisions are already enabled with wi-fi. By the end of March, all KSRTC buses will have wi-fi, corporation officials told Deccan Chronicle.
A senior KSRTC official said, “The remaining 8,800 buses will be wi-fi enabled in two months. Our aim is to ensure that every KSRTC bus has wi-fi, not just air-conditioned or Volvo buses.”
The tender to install wi-fi was given to a private company based in Pune. “It is a three-year contract and wi-fi systems will be maintained by the private company and KSRTC. The corporation will also get additional revenues, as the company will play KSRTC Rs 123 for every bus it fits wi-fi systems with.”
He said, “There was a notion that we catered only to premium travellers in Volvo buses. We wanted to change this notion and started installing wi-fi systems in normal and Volvo buses simultaneously. Passengers have appreciated this initiative.”
He said that now, 24 KSRTC bus stations are wi-fi enabled on a pilot basis and in another couple of months, all bus stations will have free wi-fi. The work was expected to be completed by February, but there was a delay due to various reasons. “We have asked the company to speed up the work and they have committed to complete it by March,” he said.
KSRTC Managing Director S.R. Umashankar told Deccan Chronicle, “We have set up March as the deadline for all KSRTC buses to be enabled with wi-fi.
Simultaneously, work is happening at bus stations too and once all this is completed, we will take passenger reviews and work towards improving the system. It will also bring in ideas about making travel easier for passengers, keeping the entertainment aspect in mind.”
