BENGALURU: The Karnataka government issued guidelines further relaxing the Covid-19 curbs in 17 districts allowing all shops to function from 6 am to 5 pm and public transport to resume operations with 50 percent capacity. In all, the government has now relaxed COVID-19 restrictions in 23 districts. The Karnataka government under "Unlock 2.0", where COVID-19 curbs have been relaxed, allowing hotels, gyms, and public transport bus services to resume operations. Udupi, Bengaluru Rural, Shivamogga, Ballari, Chitradurga, and Vijayapura have been placed under Category-1 after considering the declining trend of the COVID-19 case positivity rate, the state government said in its order.

With this, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) had said it is deploying 3,000 initially for local and inter-district long route bus operations. KSRTC also said it will restart inter-state bus services to Andhra Pradesh and the Telangana States as per the guidelines of respective States with effect from June 22 based on traffic density and need with 50 percent seating capacity.

The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) had said it will ply 2,000 buses. A steady increase has been seen in traffic movement in the city, with all government and private offices being permitted to function with 50 percent of their staff strength and offices dealing with essential and emergency services are permitted to function as per their requirement.

The 17 districts where most restrictions have been relaxed, are Bengaluru Urban, Uttara Kannada, Belagavi, Mandya, Koppala, Chikkaballapur, Tumakuru, Kolar, Gadag, Dharwad, Raichur, Bagalkot, Kalaburagi, Haveri, Ramanagara, Yadgir, and Bidar. Most of the districts have borders with the Telugu states.

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