Udupi: Pramod Madhwaraj, Minister in-charge for Udupi district flagged off the new low floor KSRTC city bus service between Udupi to Karkala on Thursday, March 9 at the KSRTC bus stand, Udupi here.

Four new KSRTC low floor buses will be operated presently. Under the JnNurm project 35 buses for Mangaluru and 30 buses for Udupi city were sanctioned, out of which 21 routes in Mangaluru and 12 routes in Udupi are operational.

Speaking on the occasion Pramod Madhwaraj said that there was heavy public pressure to start KSRTC buses in the Udupi – Karkala route and with these four buses the longstanding demand of the people has been met.

“It is a wrong notion that the government is introducing KSRTC buses to smother the private buses. There are no such intentions. In fact the private buses must work together to give better services to people,” he said.

The KSRTC has applied for permits for 26 buses and a decision on the same will be taken during the RTA meet scheduled for March 21.

He also said that a new JnNURM bus stand will be constructed at a cost of Rs four crore, the tender process for the same is underway. “Meanwhile KSRTC bus stand will be constructed under the public-private partnership in Udupi at a cost of Rs. 30 crore,” he added.

President of Udupi CMC Meenakshi Madhava Bannaje, Vice President Sandhya Tilakraj, Taluk Panchayat President Nalini Pradeep Rao, UUDA President Narasimha Moorthy, Mangaluru Divisional Controller Vivekanand Shenoy and DTO Jaishankar Kumar, Municipal Councillors Janardhan Bhandarkar, Ramesh Kanchan, Celine Karkada and other among were present.