Passengers left in the lurch at KIA

A number of passengers scheduled to fly to and from the City were stranded at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) due to the Karnataka bandh on Saturday.

Many who were scheduled to take evening flights, reached the airport as early as 5 am, fearing unavailability of cabs and to avoid any outward incidents. People even took shared cabs to the KIA and paid exorbitant fares.

Accounts executive Deepak Gajjar, his wife Jayashree and their two children were on a tour of popular South Indian cities. They landed in Mysuru two days ago, which was supposed to be the last leg of their 10-day trip. They were scheduled to fly to Mumbai from the City at 6 pm on Saturday. “We made plans to see Bengaluru on Saturday but all that had to be changed due to the bandh. We started from Mysuru around 3 am and came straight to the airport at 7 am before the bandh started,” said Jayashree.

Working behind a temporary workstation set up with a laptop over his travel bags was Santhosh Anthony, a travel agent from Jaipur. He arrived at the airport at 6.30 am to catch a flight scheduled for 5.20 pm.

“Had this bandh not been called I would have had a more comfortable setting to work in. I also had a few meetings scheduled on the day, but they were all cancelled,” he said. Santhosh stayed at a friend’s place in Jeevanbheemanagar and finally got a shared cab early in the morning, but was charged Rs 500. “The three other passengers in the cab were similarly charged,” he said.

Few others who had a stopover in the City had to drastically change their plans and wait till the bandh was over. Vayu Vajra BMTC buses were off the roads leaving many passengers in the lurch.

Vikram Barche and his wife Veena Barche, IT professionals from Pune had to reschedule their travel plans to Ooty owing to the bandh. They had booked seats in a KSRTC bus to proceed to their destination around noon, soon after landing in the City. “KSRTC however advised us to book a 9.45 pm bus. We could have booked a private cab to Ooty but the rates will be exorbitant especially at a time like this. We do not have a choice but to wait,” they said.

Coming in from Ahmedabad at around 11 am, Babu Panduranga, an engineer was caught unaware due to the bandh. After completing some work in the City, he was to set out for his hometown near Coimbatore but he too had to wait. “I had no clue about the bandh,” he said.