Sagin Sebastian

BENGALURU: A Kerala techie working in Bengaluru who pays regular visits to his hometown Ernakulam has emerged Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation’s most frequent commuter in terms of online booking in 2019.

KSRTC’s online booking data show Sagin Sebastian (43) booked 148 tickets last year and paid Rs 1.8 lakh towards the fare. “I’ve been travelling to Ernakulam every weekend for the past three years to visit my family including three children. Earlier, I used to take the train but now I travel only by KSRTC buses,” he told TOI.

A Bengaluru-Ernakulam bus journey takes about 10 hours and cost an average of Rs 1,200 per ticket. “KSRTC is cheaper and more reliable than private bus operators. There have been several instances of its crew waiting for me when I was stuck in traffic while heading to the bus terminus. KSRTC also allows one to book tickets 30 days in advance, enabling me to plan my journey,” he added.

The corporation has collated information about passengers who have booked maximum tickets through its website. Its second-most frequent commuter is Dhruvaraj S (137 tickets), who also travelled on the Bengaluru-Ernakulam route and paid Rs 1.5 lakh for the tickets. K Navaneetha Gopalakrishnan stood third after having booked 134 tickets worth over Rs 1 lakh (Bengaluru-Puducherry route).

Twelve travellers booked more than 100 tickets each last year on the KSRTC website. Most of them were intercity passengers travelling to Ernakulam, Chennai, Vijayawada, Hyderabad, Thrissur, Panaji and Palakkad. These passengers booked tickets through ksrtc.in and don’t include those purchasing offline tickets.

Asked why passengers travelling within Karnataka didn’t figure in the list, an official said they often purchase tickets directly from conductors or from ticket counters, and the corporation doesn’t have their data.

KSRTC officials said they have around 30 lakh online users till date, including 15 lakh registered ones. About 20% of the total tickets issued are booked online. For a brief period, KSRTC online booking services were provided by other websites, but the provision was scrapped after a few of them reportedly favoured private firms over KSRTC.

“We have a loyal customer base, particularly of women passengers. They only travel by KSRTC and visit our website to book tickets. Passengers can also book at authorised ticket counters and BangaloreOne centres,” said the official.

KSRTC managing director Shivayogi C Kalasad has called for a meeting of around 50 frequent passengers on February 29 for feedback on improving its services. KSRTC is also planning to provide a complimentary ticket (to and fro) to them. A senior official said: “The idea is to get feedback from our loyal customers about the quality of services, crew behaviour and running time. We’ll get to know how we can improve.”

