Till August 1997, KSRTC was holding a fleet of 10,400 buses, operating about 9500 schedules. In August 1997, KSRTC was divided and a new corporation by the name Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) was carved out of KSRTC. In November 1997, another new road transport corporation called North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKSRTC) was formed to cater to the transportation needs of North Western parts of Karnataka.
Recently, the North Eastern Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NEKSRTC) was also formed with its corporate office in Gulbarga.
The company runs fleet of buses of all types like ordinary,semi-luxury and deluxe.Recently a new type of buses Volvo called Airawat has been introduced. The KSRTC not only covers entire state of Karnataka but also neighbouring states.
Buses in Bangalore are cheap and usually frequent, but traveling on them can be very difficult if you don't know the system well. Local city buses display only the route number in English, with the destination and route information is written in Kannada. This means you will have to know what route number you need before you get on, which you can find from the BMTC website or by asking locals. Unlike many Western countries, posted route maps of the bus system are rare, although maps are sold at the main bus terminal (Majestic Bus Stand).
City buses will be crowded during rush hours but one can travel with little difficulty during day time. Bus service is less frequent after 9:30 - 10:00 pm and becomes rare after 10:30 pm.
It is always better to buy a daily pass if you plan to travel the whole day on the bus. The daily pass costs Rs 30 and it comes handy if you need to travel on several buses in a single day. Daily passes are issued by the on-duty bus conductor or at the bus stand, mostly till 1 pm in the afternoon. Using this pass you can travel in any bus (other than A/C Volvo) for the entire day, any number of times. It is a very economical option for travel in Bangalore.
There are three major bus stands:
* Majestic Bus Stand also known as the Kempegowda bus stand near Gandhi Nagar is close to the railway station and is quite neatly organized and is easily navigable. There is an inquiry office near platform number 1 on ‘Majestic’ where you can ask the bus number and platform for your desired destination. You can find a large map on display, which you can use to find the bus number you need to take if you know the area you are going to. You can of course always ask the conductor or other passengers. Route maps are also sold on the platforms.
* City Market is around 2 km (1.2 mi) to 3 km (1.8 mi) away from Majestic and could daunt newcomers, since it is very disorganized. It is a large dirt parking lot under an overhead highway, and there isn't much order to where buses park.
* Shivajinagar is in the north. This is also neatly organized and there is an enquiry window to find about buses.
From all of these three bus stands, buses are available for all major regions of city.
Other important bus stands are
* BTS, Important junction of major routes near Lalbag
* Jayanagar, South
* Banashankari, South West
* BTM, South East
* Vijaynagar, West
* Malleswaram, North West
* Yeshwantpur, Far North West
* Domlur, East
* Rajajinagar, North
Buses with black display boards run within the city. Red board buses covers long distance and go to adjoining suburbs. There is a ‘Pushpak’ service with better seating; these buses are tan rather than the usual blue. Recently A/C Volvo buses have also been introduced for select routes.