Karnataka bus staff protest: RTC services 96% normal, says government

Employees of the state-run Road Transport Corporations staged an agitation on Thursday (February 19, 2026), demanding salary revision and clearance of pending arrears, among other issues. However, the RTCs maintained that services remained largely unaffected, reporting normal operations with overall fleet utilisation exceeding 96%.

The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of road transport corporation (RTC) workers’ unions decided to go ahead with its proposed ‘Bengaluru Chalo’ march and a day-long demonstration at Freedom Park on February 19, even as the government agreed to release part of the pending arrears and special grants.

According to official data, a total of 12,458 scheduled departures were planned across the four corporations — KSRTC, BMTC, NWKRTC and KKRTC. Of these, 11,987 services were operated, achieving an overall operation rate of 96.22%. With the addition of 663 extra services, total operated services touched 12,650, taking the effective operation percentage, including additional trips, to 101.54%, as of 10 a.m. on the day.

KSRTC operated 3,806 out of its 4,177 scheduled departures, recording 91.12% operations. With 656 additional services operated under ‘Jatra’ arrangements, its effective operational percentage rose to 106.82%.

BMTC achieved near-full capacity operations, running 3,540 services against 3,532 scheduled departures, touching 100.23% without deploying additional services.

NWKRTC operated 2,250 out of 2,310 scheduled departures, registering 97.40%. With seven additional services for jatra demand, its effective operation rose to 97.71%.

KKRTC reported, operating 2,391 out of 2,439 scheduled departures, achieving 98.03% operations.

On Wednesday (February 18, 2026), after a meeting with union representatives, Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy announced that 26 months of salary arrears amounting to ₹1,271.92 crore would be released for officers and employees of the State’s four RTCs.