BMRCL plans to woo tourists with travel passes

Nischith N | NT

After the Covid-19 crippled the tourism industry across the country, domestic tourism is now witnessing a revival and Bengaluru among top visited cities.

In order to attract more tourists, BMRCL is planning to collaborate with the tourism department to start a new initiative of Bengaluru rounds in Namma Metro.

It recently launched one-day and three-day passes for unlimited travel. Now taking a cue from the passes, BMRCL is planning to collaborate with the tourism department and other travel agencies across Bengaluru city to start Bengaluru rounds using the same Metro passes.

“Every day Bengaluru city will be having a handsome number of tourists visiting and most of them hail a taxi and few take BMTC bus, which runs special for tourists named Bangalore Darshan Sightseeing. But for both the modes, slow moving traffic is a major concern. So BMRCL is planning to offer them an alternative,” says a BMRCL senior official.

According to the reports, the plan of starting a Bengaluru round at Metro is in a beginning stage and it is claimed to take three months to get a proper structure. It is said that the Corporation is having an on-going discussion with the tourism department and other private agencies to come up with a new route map for the tourist to roam around using Namma Metro.

As of now, Namma Metro passes through popular destinations such as Vidhana Soudha, Cubbon Park, Tipu’s Palace, Lal Bagh, Iskcon temple and also shopping destinations like Orion and Mantri malls, MG Road and Brigade Road.

Reacting on this, BMRCL Managing Director, Anjum Parwez said “Yes we are having a plan of collaborating with the tourism department and other few private tourism agencies to make use of our new metro passes system. It takes a few more times and nothing has been decided, at this point of time I can only say that the new passes system will definitely help tourists to move around Bengaluru without any traffic problem.”

In recent years, BMTC launched Bengaluru Darshini, a sight-seeing service, which was suspended during Covid. The bus was operated from Fridays to Sundays and cover tourist spots like Iskcon temple, Vidhana Soudha, Tipu’s Palace, Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple, Bull Temple, Dodda Ganapathi Temple, Cubbon Park, Sir M Visvesvaraya Museum and Karnataka Art Gallery.