Mangaluru : The private city buses in Mangaluru resumed their services from Monday. After March 21, buses had remained off the road following lockdown announced by the government to check the spread of COVID-19.

Dakshina Kannada Bus Operators’ Association has decided to operate only a few of the buses initially and will operate all the buses in a phased manner depending on the demand.

Accordingly, out of 320 city buses, only 135 will operate today.

Only a few passengers had travelled in the buses in the morning. A few buses had arranged sanitisers for passengers, drivers and conductors. On Monday morning, buses were sanitised before the journey.

The bus fare has been increased by 15% as per the notification issued by the government.

Though the State government had given permission for buses to operate its services during mid- May, private buses had not started services as they had surrendered permits to the RTO.