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

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

The Road Transport Trade Unions (RTC) Joint Action Committee (JAC) decided to go ahead with the proposed ‘Bengaluru Chalo’ march and a day-long demonstration at Freedom Park on February 19, even as the government agreed to release some of the outstanding arrears and special subsidies.

According to official data, a total of 12,458 scheduled departures were scheduled for the four companies – KSRTC, BMTC, NWKRTC and KKRTC. Of these, 11,987 services were operated, reaching a total operating rate of 96.22%. With the addition of 663 additional services, the total number of services operated reached 12,650, bringing the effective operating rate, including additional journeys, to 101.54% as of 10am on the day.

KSRTC operated 3,806 of the 4,177 scheduled departures, registering 91.12% of the flights. With 656 additional services operated under ‘Jatra’ agreements, the effective operating rate increased to 106.82%.

BMTC achieved operations at almost full capacity, operating 3,540 services against 3,532 scheduled departures, representing 100.23% without deploying additional services.

NWKRTC conducted 2,250 of the 2,310 scheduled departures and recorded 97.40%. With seven additional services for jatra demand, its effective operation increased to 97.71%.

KKRTC reported that it operated 2,391 of 2,439 scheduled departures and achieved 98.03% of flights.

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