Bengaluru/Mysuru: While Mysusru witnessed a heavy rush of tourist inflow due to the extended holiday, most of the tourists struggled to find rooms with the lodges overbooked over this weekend.
Tourists who had come from various places found it hard to get even single room as most of the lodges were booked well in advance.
Apart from the hotel industry that witnessed a good business due to the extended holiday, the other tourist places in the city particularly Mysuru zoo, palace, Chamundi hill and KRS witnessed a heavy footfall.
Mahesh, a tourist from Belgaum said “As it was extended weekend, we came to Bengaluru and later to Mysuru on Saturday. Surprisingly, when I tried to book rooms online, in most of the lodges the rooms were booked and we somehow with the help of local friend managed to get a room nearby Sub-urban bus stand”.
Speaking to newskarnataka.com Mallige Veeresh, Chairperson, Zoo Authority of Karnataka said “For the past two days it was good turnout in Mysuru. On Saturday we did nearly Rs 9 lakh business which was almost the same on Sunday. Usually on Saturday and Sunday the average turnout was Rs 4 lakh but due to extended weekend, the business was almost double”
The rush not only impacted the hotel and tourist industry but traffic too was thrown out of gear with vehicular movement on Mysuru Road with commuters stuck in a jam for over one-and-a-half-hour starting from Town Hall junction all the way till Bidadi on Sunday.
According to traffic police deployed at Kengeri, the problem began with buses slowing down to drop passengers at the Satellite bus stand, operated by the KSRTC. The corporation had earlier announced that it would operate 450-500 extra buses to beat the holiday rush.
The problem was compounded by the ongoing work for Namma Metro Phase II after Nayandahalli. While the road has been widened at many stretches, there are still some bottlenecks. With Monday being May Day, heavy traffic is expected in the evening as vehicles that have left the city may return today.
While traffic police tried to divert some traffic via other roads, these too were jam-packed soon.
MY/UK
