KSRTC to ply 20 buses from Infy campus every day till Apr. 2

Mysore/Mysuru: In view of the Coronavirus scare, IT major Infosys, which has its biggest campus in the city of Mysuru, has begun evacuating trainees from its Global Education Centre here from yesterday.

The IT giant has sought the help of KSRTC to help ferry close to 10,000 trainees to their respective destinations. The evacuation, said to be one of the largest within India since the outbreak of the virus, will be carried out in phases. Each day around 1,500 trainees will be evacuated from the campus. 

KSRTC has set up four counters inside the Infosys campus, wherein the trainees can purchase a current ticket to their respective destinations.

As of now, KSRTC is operating Volvo (Airavat Club Class), Rajahamsa Sleeper coach and ordinary red buses to Chennai, Hyderabad, Trivandrum, Ernakulam, Madurai, Bengaluru City, Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru and many other districts in the Southern States. Trainees from Northern part of India are opting for train journey. City buses are also being deployed to ferry trainees to the City Railway Station.

Around 20 KSRTC buses from the Mysuru Rural Sub-Division will be operating from Infosys Mysuru Campus in Hebbal to ferry around 1,500 trainees each day till Apr. 2. This arrangement is to avoid panic and chaos among the trainees, said the statement.

Some trainees also made their own arrangements to travel to their homes, by hiring private cabs. Each cab was shared by 3-4 trainees going in that direction, as seen today morning near the campus. 

The Flybus of KSRTC operates to and from Mysuru Suburb Bus Stand and Madikeri to Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru. Also today morning, the Flybus coming from Bengaluru and headed towards Madikeri, via  Mysuru, added a little detour towards Infosys campus in city, to help trainees take this bus towards Madikeri and other nearby places.

Online training

“Training won’t be halted as a result of this move. To make sure that the trainees can learn from their homes, we are facilitating logistics and are also ensuring that their training continues via Lex, our digital learning and talent transformation platform,” said a statement from Infosys.

“Infosys has advised its employees to work from home where possible while ensuring client confidentiality and security. We will continue to work with local Governments all around the world in following their advisories,” said Infosys CEO Salil Parekh, in a statement.

Infosys had earlier vacated one of its buildings in Bengaluru campus suspecting one of its employees was in touch with a COVID-19 positive patient.

KSRTC sees dip in travel

KSRTC Mysuru Rural Sub-Division Divisional Controller R. Ashok Kumar, speaking to Star of Mysore, said that KSRTC has reduced its Volvo bus services by almost 40-50 percent and common red buses by almost 20 percent due to the Coronavirus scare across the State. 

He further said, after the Government’s order to avoid travel unless necessary, most of the commuters are avoiding public transport and also restricting travel plans, thereby forcing us to cancel most of our bus services.