Buses, autos to stay off roads tomorrow

BENGALURU: Commuters take note. BMTC, KSRTC buses and autorickshaws will stay off the roads on Wednesday as they join the nationwide strike against hefty penalties proposed against drivers in the National Road Safety bill. Employees' pick-and-drop service will also be hit as BMTC caters to many tech parks like ITPL, Manyata Tech Park and companies like Infosys and Wipro. However, taxi services may not be affected in the city as cabbies plan to go on strike on the same issue on October 1. KR Vijaykumar, member of the united employees union, said KSRTC, BMTC, NWKRTC and NEKRTC employees will join the strike. "In foreign countries, there are six to eight-lane roads with varying speed limits and driving is not stressful. Here, we have poorly laid two-lane roads and chaotic traffic, and are forced to complete the target of 10 trips within an eight-hour shift. If the Centre wants to levy hefty fines for traffic violations, it must ensure better and wider roads first," he said. Various autorickshaw drivers' unions in Bengaluru also echoed the same. While 55 lakh people depend on BMTC service, more than 1 lakh auto rickshaws ply in the city daily. -TOI