Once a dream vehicle, Volvos turn white elephants post-pandemic

Volvo buses were bought with the dream of driving BMTC’s growth in a city rapidly gaining a reputation as Silicon Valley. But over the last two years, the mass transit vehicles have become white elephants, pushing the corporation into a corner.

Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) officials are working hard to ensure running the air-conditioned buses are viable.

The corporation spends Rs 80-85 per kilometre to run the Volvo, but earnings plummeted to Rs 50 per kilometre post the pandemic.

Out of 860 Volvo buses in its fleet, the corporation runs less than 60 buses since operations were allowed on June 21. None of them are on the city routes. An official said even charter services are proving to be unsustainable with most companies continuing to let employees work from home.

“As of now, we can’t find a viable option to run these buses, given the spiraling diesel prices. Without running, the buses will take Rs 1 lakh per year for maintenance, not to mention the additional cost of running a bus after several months,” the official said.

Sources said several options have been considered to get out of the jam, including making the buses non-AC or giving them to other corporations. “Even before Covid-19, the AC buses were causing a huge loss to the corporation, except for the airport rides. Limited activities at the airport after the pandemic have made us think about long-term implications,” a BMTC source said.

Back in 2014

A senior official said Volvo buses were seen as new hope for BMTC back in 2014.

The sleek air-conditioned buses were expected to capture the imagination of IT workers. “To some extent, it did seem like the way forward as ridership increased. (But) uncertainty set in after Ola and Uber entered the market and offered cheap rides,” the official said.

Unreliable timings of the buses made it harder for the corporation to compete with the app-based aggregators who allowed commuters to plan their journey by giving an estimated arrival time (ETA).

Gurumurthy C N, a senior software analyst with a company on the Outer Ring Road, said the BMTC woke up to the challenge very late.

“By the time they tried to come up with the app that can provide ETA, the taxi service providers had moved miles ahead and began tying up with companies. Nobody wanted to wait for a ride,” Gurumurthy said.

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