Mangalore : Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim flagged off city bus service to the Pilikula Nisargadhama at Pilikula here on  Saturday  Sep.20.

Pilikula is a popular tourist spot on the outskirts of the city that has a zoological park, science centre, heritage village and a private water park. A long-pending demand of bus service to Pilikula, the district administration launched the service.

Some of the buses heading to the nearby Moodushedde will now take visitors right up to the parking area at the Nisargadhama. They will also pick up those returning from the place to the city.

“There will be one bus available every 30 minutes for the destination,” said Nelson Periera, president of the City Bus Operators Union, and added that they had four meetings with officials and operators to arrive at the time schedule.

People could board these buses from State Bank Circle as well as from the Kankanady bus stand. There will be one bus service from Talapady. While the buses from State Bank Circle will start from 8.25 a.m., those from Kankanady will start from 9.35 a.m. The only bus from Talapady leaves at 9.18 a.m. The last bus from Pilikula to the city will be at 6.50 p.m. In all, there will be 20 trips to Pilikula.

Regional Transport Officer Afzal Ahmed Khan, who is the Member Secretary of the District Road Transport Authority, said they had to tweak the route timings of some of the buses coming to Moodshedde to facilitate diversion to Pilikula. “We also had to give additional time for some of the buses,” he said. A bus operator said that private buses were willing to operate buses through Pilikula. “But there was resistance from the administrators of Nisargadhama for entry of buses,” he said.

K.V. Rao from the Pilikula Science Centre said the resistance was mainly because the disturbance to wild animals that were staying close to the entrance of the zoo. “As animals have been moved a fair distance away there is no case of disturbance,” he said.

Moreover, the area now was hub to many activities that brought together people from different parts of the district and also the State, he said. At the formal inaugural function, Executive Director of Pilikula Nisargadhama S.A. Prabhakar Sharma said the new facility would bring in several visitors to the ecological area.

“We had six lakh visitors last year. We hope to get around seven lakh visitors this time,” he said. Mr. Sharma said there had been a drop in the number of visitors in the last few weeks. “We hope to get more people during this festive season. The bus facility will certainly lead to increase in the number of visitors,” he said.