Shifting gears: BMTC to get 1,658 buses in four months

BENGALURU: After a gap of four years, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) is adding 1,658 buses to its fleet of around 6,000. The buses will be procured in the next four months, it is learnt.

Of the 1,658 buses, 200 will be airconditioned buses and 450 will be midi (shorter) buses while the rest 1,008 will be ordinary buses.

Each air-conditioned bus is expected to cost `93 lakh and the corporation will shell out Rs 26 lakh and Rs 27 lakh for the mini and ordinary buses respectively .

The addition will augment bus schedules, some of which were cut due to a shortage of buses. The lone transport utility in the city caters to about 5.2 million passengers a day.

BMTC's MD Dr Ekroop Caur said that the corporation could not purchase buses for the past 3-4 years due to various reasons, including legal hurdles. “With all these issues being sorted out, we have placed orders for the purchase of buses,“ she said.

The new buses will be made by Tata, Eicher and Volvo as these manufacturers apparently emerged as the lowest bidders. Of the 1,658 buses, 500 buses are being bought under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme, while 658 buses are being funded by the corporation's money. “For the remaining buses, BMTC will raise loans, for which the government of Karnataka has agreed to pay the interest,“ Kaur revealed. Another BMTC official said some of the new buses would be assigned new routes. “Besides increasing frequency on a few routes, we have received requests to introduce buses in the layouts in Yelahanka, HSR and Malleswaram,“ he said, adding that the airport service would also get some new buses.

Meantime, the corporation will also scrap 999 buses which have clocked more than the permissible 900,000-km mark. “We scrapped 200 buses last year and there are 600 buses which are identified for scrapping next year,“ Kaur said.