The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : BMTC fails to augment its services in 2010-11

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Sunday, Apr 17, 2011
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

BMTC fails to augment its services in 2010-11

Anil Kumar Sastry

Non-induction of new buses puts the brakes on performance

BANGALORE: At a time when Bangaloreans are craving for more buses, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) could add only 58 new buses and 108 new routes as against the target of 1,000 buses and about 500 routes in 2010-11.

The reason: The BMTC did not get even a single new bus during the last financial year and the 58 buses it added to the fleet were part of the JNNURM-funded project meant for 2009-10. It had plans to induct at least 1,000 buses in 2010-11 to fulfil its vision 2020 by when it targeted to have 10,246 buses in its fleet.

While the corporation operated buses on 5,758 routes in 2009-10, the number of routes on which BMTC services operated reached just 5,857 in 2010-11. Its fleet size actually came down from 6,093 in 2009-10 to 6,072 in 2010-11 as many old buses were scrapped.

Non-induction of new buses and the consequent impasse in service levels go against the much touted “Bus Day” campaign of BMTC. The corporation had been observing the fourth day of every month as Bus Day to woo users of private vehicles to its fold thereby reducing the congestion on city roads.

Sources in BMTC told The Hindu that non-induction of new buses had severely affected the replacement of old buses in the fleet.

Scrap

About 400 to 500 buses go to the scrap yard each year while very few buses were scrapped last year. As a result, old buses that should have been in the junkyards were still made to run on roads, the sources noted.

Bringing such buses on roads was not only a challenge for the maintenance personnel but also portrayed a poor picture about the corporation, which had earned a good name among the public, they said.

Earlier, the corporation could add 949 new buses and 603 new routes in 2008-09 and 1,218 new buses and 417 new routes in 2009-10.

These additions had substantially enhanced the operational performance of the Corporation, as BMTC managed to add about 1,000 new routes.

The persistent demand from many newly added areas to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for city bus services could not be met with by the corporation because of non-availability of new buses, sources noted.

Mandate

After Bangalore became bigger, BMTC's mandate too got extended beyond 25 km of the periphery of the BBMP. Though it had plans to connect places such as Malur, Dobbspet, Magadi, Kanakapura, etc., after Bangalore's expansion, the same could not be achieved because of lack of new buses.

In fact, the corporation had given an undertaking to the Karnataka High Court to operate feeder services in the periphery of Bangalore to address the first and last mile connectivity by July this year.

This was in response to a public interest litigation plea seeking efficient feeder services from the corporation. The sources said BMTC required about 120 buses to offer these feeder services, which as of now appears nearly impossible.

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