BANGALORE: The fleet strength of Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation is expected to cross the 4,000-mark by the end of December. The corporation has over 3,600 buses now.

Also by the year-end, 25 airconditioned Volvo buses are likely to be added and will ply on select routes with a higher fare than other buses, BMTC officials said.

The transport corporation has placed orders with the Swedish heavy vehicle manufacturer for the buses, each of them expected to cost around Rs. 70 lakhs, when imported.

The vehicles are likely to come in a knocked-down condition to be assembled at the BMTC workshop here.

The 7000 cc engines of the buses will conform to the Euro III emission norms and the design will be similar to that of the Volvo-8700 coaches plying on the highways in Europe. Compared with the average city bus' capacity of 50 seats, the airconditioned buses will have seats for 75 passengers.

Earlier attempts to induct Volvo buses fell out mainly because of hurdles the State Government had to face with regard to financing from a Swedish agency.

The Union Government did not approve of the proposal. There was resistance from among the BMTC engineers, city planners and the traffic police saying most city roads may not be equipped to handle such large buses. Most Volvo buses are now used on the highways on long distance routes. The proposal to have dedicated bus lanes has also been kept pending. The transport corporation hopes get over these difficulties by the time the new buses hit the roads.

The BMTC has reasons for its fleet expansion. Though it operates more than 45,000 trips each day on close to 4,000 schedules and its buses cover seven lakh km on all working days, the services have not been adequate to meet the needs of an estimated 25 lakh commuters.

This has led to the steady increase in personal transportation (about 21 lakh vehicles on the city roads) and nearly one lakh autorickshaws. With the metro rail project likely to be completed three to four years from now, expanding the operations of the BMTC has become important.

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