Public Conveyance: Prior to 1948, public conveyance was solely in the hands of private entrepreneurs. In earlier times, bullock, buffallo, ass and horses were the main beasts of burden. Kavadis and Bullock Carts were used to carry goods. Bullock Carts and Horse Carriages transported people. In 1911, Public Traffic Control act was implemented in Mysore and in 1920, there were already private buses serving the public. Around 1935, their number was 100. The Mysore Traffic Board started in 1936 in old Mysore area controlled the public conveyance.
After independence, when nationalisation of roads was initiated in 1948, Mysore State Road Transport Department (MSRTC) came into existence on 12th September 1948 with 20 buses. By 1949, it had 120 buses covering 81 schedules and 15,000 km road mileage. Although the nationalization of Road Transport in Hyderabad State had been initiated as early as 1936 by the Hyderabad State Road Transport Department established during 1932, its
impact was very limited, Contrary to this, in Bombay Presidency nationalisation of Road Transport was implemented in 1947, was extended even to Belgaum Division in 1949 with the name “State Transport” (ST). At the time of Unification in 1956, it received 825 buses and 778 scheduled routes from Bombay, Hyderabad and Old Mysore States. By 1957 it ranked fourth at national level with 1100 buses under its control. As per the Central Road Transport Corporation Act of 1950, this department became a Corporation in 1961 and after 1973 came to be called as Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC). By 1982, it ranked fifth at national level with five Regional Offices
located at Bangalore (2), Mysore, Belgaum and Gulbarga, having control over 12 divisions and 68 depots. It had 5,700 passenger buses covering 3,855 scheduled routes of 11.20 lakh km route milage per day and providing service to 20.9 lakh passengers.
In November 1985, Gulbarga, Bidar, Bijapur, Bellary, Hassan and Raichur districts nationalisation process was completed and partial nationalisation being done in the districts of Kolar, Bangalore {Rural and Urban), Mysore and Chikmagalur. By 1991, it had 6 Regional Offices, 14 divisions and 91 Depots with 7,602 scheduled routes and 8,824 buses, with an annual income of 404.82 crores. As on March 1997, the KSRTC had 19 divisions, 109 depots with 8,493 schedules, 13,273 routes of 9.491akh route km and 31.01 lakhs of daily km service to the public with a daily revenue of Rs. 350.38 lakhs. On 15th August 1997, the government divided KSRTC into KSRTC (Old Mysore-
Hyderabad area), Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation(BMTC) (Bangalore City); and on 1-11-1997, the North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) with its headquarters at Hubli, covering Hubli, Gadag, UK, Belgaum, Bijapur and Bagalkot divisions was inaugurated. Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) separated from KSRTC on 15-8-1997, is entrusted with the work of serving the public of Bangalore Metropolitan City with sincerity and punctuality. Prior to its separation, it
was looked after by Bangalore City Transports (North and South divisions) through 13 depots with 1839 schedules, 1991 buses and a central workshop. BMTC covers Bangalore city with 30 km radius and by March 1998 it had 2088 buses and 1934 schedules (740 city, 925 sub-urban and 269 Pushpak schedules) with 4,42,953 scheduled route km to its credit. At present it is operating 2,285 schedules with a fleet strength of 2412 buses through 17 depots, 3 major bus stations, 8 sub-bus stations and one central workshop.
Its total revenue for the year 1999-2000 was Rs. 20,425.84 lakhs and is running under profit. Recently during 2000-01, KSRTC has under gone furtherer bifurcation and as a result the North-Eastern Karnataka Road Transport Corporation(NEKRTC), a separate independent corporation for Hyderabad- Karnataka area with its head quarters at Gulbarga has come into existence. As a result, at present, KSRTC, BMTC, NWKRTC and NEKRTC are administering the transport services along with Private Agencies in the State.
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