BMTC to add 700 buses soon

The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has planned to add 700 Tata BS4 buses by March 31, but so far managed only 263. 

According to BMTC managing director K R Sreenivas, there has been a delay in supply of the buses from Tata. “Since BS4 uses a new technology, the suppliers have not been able to manufacture in the numbers we require,” he said.

According to BMTC Chief Traffic Manager, Operations, Prabhu Das, the company is delivering five to 10 buses at a time. “They had some issues with manufacturing so they are still not able to supply in bulk,” he said. 

Prabhu Das said BMTC was unable to get any buses for about a year-and-a-half as BS4 buses were not available. “About 1,000 buses in the BMTC fleet need immediate replacement.

Normally we scrap buses after they have run 7.5 lakh kilometres but we have a lot of buses which have run more 10 lakh kilometres,” he added. 

Apart from replacement, Prabhu Das says there is much potential for augmentation of the fleet but because of the shortage of supply all augmentation plans have been put on hold for now.

BMTC was to add 825 buses, of which 700 buses were to be BS4 buses, most of them manufactured by Tata, to replace the existing non-AC buses and 100 Volvos to cater to additional demand by March end.

Of the 100 Volvos, only 32 buses have been delivered, but Sreenivas expressed confidence that the remaining buses will be procured soon. 

“Ideally, we have to replace 10 per cent of our fleet every year. Since our fleet strength is around 6,000 buses we need at least 600 new buses every year,” he said. 

Sreenivas said that by next year the supply of the BS4 non AC buses should be normal and BMTC will have the required fleet strength by 2013-14.