[sustran] Where are the buses?

Vinay Baindur yanivbin at gmail.com
Sun Nov 15 15:48:48 JST 2015


http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/bmtc-downsizes-fleet-while-commuters-are-demanding-more/article7878387.ece






Where are the buses?
AVINASH BHAT <http://www.thehindu.com/profile/author/avinash-bhat/>


[image: Photo: K. Murali Kumar]
The Hindu
Photo: K. Murali Kumar
BMTC downsizes fleet while commuters are demanding more

At a time when demand for buses has been growing, the Bangalore
Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) seems to be downsizing. The
corporation has reduced as many as 272 schedules between March 2014 and
June this year.

As the cash starved corporation implements more passenger friendly
measures, like surveys and requests for new routes, it is also on a mission
to reduce spending on new buses as this is viewed as an unnecessary expense.

What this means for commuters is that there will be fewer buses on the
roads with fleet augmentation reaching a low of 197 buses in 2014-15 after
838 buses were added in 2013-14.

“Bengalureans are already suffering due to overcrowded and untimely buses.
Either there are not enough buses or the fleet is being mismanaged. BMTC
has to explain. If there are enough buses, why are they overcrowded? And
why are there not enough buses at night,” questioned Vinay Srinivasa of
Bangalore Bus Prayanikara Vedike.

Officials say BMTC has an excess of buses. According to them, there are
enough Volvo buses to last another two years without having to add more
vehicles. “We have excess buses and, hence, have not purchased any in the
past year. The corporation has a massive loan to repay because of buses
purchased in the past,” said Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy. “We have
plans of deploying a few JNNURM buses this year, but there have been some
technical issues with regard to the bus weight, which are being looked
into.”

He also said that the budget for the coming year has a provision for
purchase of buses, but the State will now have to shell out up to 50 per
cent of the cost with the rest coming from the Centre. Up to now, the
State’s share was 20 per cent.

Total buses6451Total buses scrapped (April 2014-June 2015)520Total vehicles
added in 2014-15197Total vehicles added in 2015-160Effective kilometres
travelled per day in 2014-1512.90 lakhEffective kilometres travelled per
day in 2015-1612.30 lakhCancellation percentage in 2014-158.4Cancellation
percentage in 2015-1610.5 per cent (till June)


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