The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (formerly known as KSRTC) is a state-owned public road transport corporation in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is wholly owned by the Government of Karnataka. It serves routes to towns and cities in the Southern part of Karnataka and connects it to the rest of the state and the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa and the Union territory of Puducherry. It offers online booking of ticket along with its subsidiaries.
History
The state of Mysore, Mysore Government Road Transport Department (MGRTD) was inaugurated on 12 September 1948 with 120 buses. The transport department of The Mysore state was administrated until 1961. After the Government of Mysore was subsequently converted into an independent Corporation under Section 3 of the Road Transport Corporation Act, 1950 on 1 August 1961, In 1961, after successfully converting into an independent corporation all assets and liabilities of MGRTD was transferred to MSRTC. On 1 October 1961, Bangalore Transport Service (BTS) was merged with the MSRTC. On 1 November 1973, the state of Mysore was renamed as Karnataka thus, renaming it into Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation. On 15 August 1997, Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) was bifurcated out of KSRTC, on 1 November 1997, North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) was bifurcated to cater to the transportation needs of North Western parts of Karnataka and on 15 August 2000, North Eastern Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NEKRTC) was bifurcated to cater to the transportation needs of North Eastern parts of Karnataka. On 2 June 2021, the rights to use the acronym KSRTC, logo and the name ‘Ana Vandi’ were fully given to Kerala State Road Transport Corporation according to the trademarks act 1999. The North Eastern Karnataka Road Transport Corporation has been renamed as Kalyana Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (KKRTC) by the State Government on 6 July 2021.
Present status
The corporation has its Corporate office at Shanthinagar, Bengaluru. Presently, excluding its subsidiaries, it covers seventeen Districts i.e., Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Ramanagara, Kolar, Chikkaballapura, Tumakuru, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Shivamogga, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Chikkamagaluru, Hassan, Mysuru, Mandya, Chamarajanagara, Kodagu in the State under its operational jurisdiction. It has totally 17 Divisions – 16 operating Divisions viz. Bengaluru Central, Ramanagara, Tumakuru, Kolar, Chikkaballapura, Mysuru City, Mysuru Rural, Mandya, Chamarajanagara, Hassan, Chikkamagaluru, Mangaluru, Puttur, Davanagere, Shivamogga, Chitradurga and one bus station division viz., Kempegowda Bus Station in Bengaluru City. 84 Depots, 166 Bus station, 4 Regional Workshops, 1 Central Training Institute, 2 Regional Training Institutes, 1 Printing Press and 1 Hospital. It has a workforce of about 37019 employees (excludes its subsidiaries). It operates 26.65 lakh km daily holding a fleet of 8744 (excludes its subsidiaries) and it earns traffic revenue of Rs. 976.10 lakh daily catering to 30.12 lakh passengers on average (excludes its subsidiaries). It stands fifth amongst STUs in the Nation by size (excludes its subsidiaries).
Services
Corporation services covers 92% villages in Karnataka (includes it’s subsidiary’s). It operates with a total fleet of 24,138 buses (Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation-8657, KKRTC-4343, NWKRTC-4716, BMTC–6422). On an average, it transports 74.57 Lakh passengers per day. It also operates to the neighboring states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Goa and Kerala. It was the first state transport corporation to introduce Volvo B7RLE low floor city buses in India in 2005. At present, it operates Tata, Ashok Leyland, Eicher Motors, Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, Scania buses under the non A/C and A/C (Airavat) services (Airavat means the mythical white elephant in Kannada).
Number of bus by corporation
- Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation – 8657
- KKRTC – 4343
- NWKRTC – 4716
- BMTC – 6422
Total – 24,158
Types of services
- Ambaari Dream Class
Longest bus in Asia (15m long) with 40 spacious sleeper berths fabricated as per AIS 119 standards with more headroom and legroom. The 410 HP Volvo B11R bus customized by Prakash features panoramic windows, roof ventilator, emergency door at the middle of the bus as per CMVR regulations, fire detection and suppression systems, mobile charging points, bottle holders and headrests.
- Flybus
Fully air conditioned nonstop luxury, Volvo multi axle bus service between Kempegowda International Airport and Mysuru with chemical toilet
- Airavat
Airavat
Fully air conditioned luxury bus service operated using Volvo and Mercedes Benz buses with semi-recliner seats.
- Airavat Bliss
Fully air conditioned luxury Volvo multi axle bus service with chemical toilets, wifi, pantry and individual TV screens. This service was stopped in 2017.
- Airavat Superia
Fully air conditioned luxury Volvo multi axle bus service with chemical toilets, wifi, and auto hand wash system. The service was stopped in 2017.
- Airavat Diamond Class
Fully air conditioned luxury bus service operated using Scania multi-axle buses with hi-definition night vision cameras for recording inside the bus and fleet management system for performance monitoring in the bus. Currently this service was renamed to Airavat Club Class .
- Airavat Club Class
Airavat Club Class
Fully air conditioned luxury bus service operated using Volvo and Mercedes Benz multi-axle buses with semi-recliner seats and with calf support.
- Rajahamsa
Non air conditioned deluxe bus service with recliner seats in 2+2 configuration built on Tata and Ashok Leyland chassis.
- Suhasa
Fully air suspension non AC reclinable seat bus, other than Rajahamsa which normally ply over North Eastern Karnataka regions.
- Ambaari
Corona Ambaari.
Fully air conditioned sleeper and Non AC bus service. These busses were built CORONA chassis.
- Ambaari Non A\C Sleeper
Non air conditioned sleeper bus service built on Tata chassis.
- Corona
Fully air conditioned and air suspension bus with 2+2 reclinable seats. Can consider it to be an alternate option for Airavat.
- Sheethal
Fully air conditioned and air suspension vehicle with 3+2 non-reclinable seats built on Ashok Leyland chassis. Mostly operates between Mysuru and Bengaluru, but now replaced with Volvo Airavat.
- Vaibhav
Vaibhav
Non air conditioned deluxe bus service with recliner seats in 2+2 configuration built on Tata and Ashok Leyland chassis. The seats recline less when compared to Rajahamsa.
- Karnataka Sarige, Suvarna Sarige, Vayavya Karnataka Sarige and Eshanya Karnataka Sarige
Widely abundant mode of bus service with 3+2 non reclining seats in Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, NWKRTC and KKRTC
Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation livery: Dual horizontal bands consisting of Silver and Red colours. Panchrangi Livery (NWKRTC): Consisting of 5 colours, with green being the dominant.
Tirangi Livery (KKRTC) : Consisting of three colours, with a small green paint, although it may differ depending on the region served. These are built on Ashok Leyland, Tata and Eicher chassis.
- Gramantara Sarige
Buses which connects villages with ordinary fare (slightly costs lesser than Suvarna Sarige).
- Nagara Sarige
