SMOOTH DRIVE: BMTC's new bus with additional features. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE: In a bid to make peak hour bus travel less irksome, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has built a bus incorporating several innovative designs.

The new features include plush interiors, ergonomically designed seats, FM Radio, wide doors and an automatic additional footboard at the front door.

Painted mainly in green, the bus sports a new look with streaks of blue and white. The corporation has built a prototype of the bus at its workshop in Shanthinagar, which would be deployed for commercial operation soon.

The corporation plans to build 400 such buses to be exclusively used for peak hour service (PHS).

One of the innovations in the bus is the additional footboard. The footboard, located beneath the regular footboard, surfaces when the driver opens the pneumatic door and goes inside on closing the door. BMTC officials said that it offered safety as well as comfort for women commuters. The destination boards have LED display.

The interiors of the bus offer a pleasant look and are expected to provide added comfort to commuters. The seats are ergonomically designed to give comfort, whereas the ceiling has a velvet cloth cover. With FM radio and speakers, commuters are assured of a pleasant ride.

While a regular bus would cost BMTC around Rs. 13 lakh, the new bus would cost around Rs. 15 lakh, said members of the mechanical engineering team of BMTC, which designed and built the new bus.

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