Karnataka Weekend Lockdown Guidelines: Amidst the rising cases of Coronavirus cases due to the highly contagious Omicron variant, the state government of Karnataka has imposed the weekend curfew in the state. In tune with the government’s directives, the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has also suspended the bus services at least for the next two weekends that are going to fall on January 8-9 and January 15-16, the Indian Express reported.
However, the BMTC has said that about 10 percent of the buses will keep plying on the city roads between 6 am in the morning to 10 pm in the night to cater to the people working in the essential service sectors. People who are working in the essential service sectors will be exempt from the weekend curfew restrictions imposed by the government and therefore the bus facility for such employees and workers has also been made available. However, the frequency of buses will be less as only about 10 percent of the lot will be on the roads on the weekend.
The essential service staff who will be allowed to travel on the BMTC buses during the weekend will include health workers, police personnel, home guards, fire department personnel and other emergency service personnel, patients and their attendants, bank and insurance sector employees, print and electronic media personnel, students due for exams and other such employees working in the exempted industries as notified by the government order.
All such employees and exempted passengers are supposed to carry their identity cards and other belongings to be verified by the bus staff otherwise they will not be allowed to board the BMTC buses. In a similar measure, the Bengaluru metro trains also run at revised timings in contrast to its regular running schedule. The metro trains will ply between 8 am and 9 pm on the weekend and the frequency of the trains will be one metro in 20 minutes.
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