Bengaluru
The Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) is in the process of procuring 120 mini-buses to cater as metro feeder services, and serve the last mile connectivity in the city, said Sathyavathi G., Managing Director of BMTC.
Participating in #THTalksBengaluru, a live chat with The Hindu on Thursday, she said these buses will be six to seven metres long and will be electric. “We are in the process of procuring 120 mini-buses which will be electric vehicles and run as metro feeder service. They will operate on narrow roads and cover interior places in city limits as well as on the outskirts. There is a lot of demand for mini-buses,” Ms. Sathyavathi added.
Now, there are MIDI buses operating in the city routes as well as metro feeder buses which have huge demand among the commuters. With two buses catching fire in a span of merely 10 days in February 2022, the BMTC had suspended the operation of 186 MIDI buses in its fleet. A MIDI bus, which is 9.2 metres long instead of the standard 12 metres, has a seating capacity of around 30.
Electric buses
Ms. Sathyavathi also spoke about inducting more electric buses. “We have not purchased electric buses but run them on a gross cost contract (GCC) basis; the entire maintenance of the buses is done by the manufacturer and only operations are done by BMTC. We are going to add another 920 buses soon to the BMTC fleet,” she said.
Currently, the BMTC, under the Union government’s Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) Fame II project has procured 390 electric buses.
The BMTC MD also said that the corporation will induct air conditioned airport bus services, including around 200 air conditioned electric buses to the airport fleet.
Route rationalisation
The BMTC is yet to take up revision of the route network in the city. Commuters pointed out that BMTC routes are decades old and have been demanding a review and revision of the route network to meet today’s travel needs.
The BMTC MD endorsed revision of routes and said, “Route rationalisation plays a very important role to wipe out overlapping routes and connect various parts of the city. We now have a good traffic analysis system so that we can update the routes.”
Lack of night service
Finding a city bus to travel at night is a harrowing experience for people who work late hours or those who arrive in the city after long-distance travel. Many people had asked about the lack of night services in the city. Responding to them, the BMTC MD said, “During pre-Covid times, night services were there. However, after Covid, the situation changed as most companies gave work from home. There was less demand for night services. Now things are changing and people are going to work in offices and night shifts are also increasing. We will surely increase the night services.”
In Bengaluru, a total of 2,615 buses are operated in night shifts. The BMTC has a fleet size of 6,767 buses out of which around 5,563 buses are operated daily.
