BMTC may paint all its buses blue and white

Proposal in offing to have single colour scheme for all except Vayu Vajra buses

All buses of the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) may soon sport a single colour if a proposal being worked out by the corporation is implemented.

The proposal entails bringing back the blue and white colour for the buses to create a uniformity, a source in the BMTC told Deccan Herald. Barring the Vayu Vajra buses bound for the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA)—which may be spared to let the distinction stay—all other buses run by the BMTC will be of a uniform colour scheme of blue and white, the source added. At present, BMTC buses are in all possible colours—shades of green, red, orange, blue, white, silver, etc.

The proposal is being worked out following complaints by commuters that different colours of the buses often leave them confused. As a public transport utility, it is in the interest of commuters that all the buses should be in the same colour to mark their identity, BMTC officials said.

Proposal in initial stage
“We have been toying with the idea of having a single colour scheme for all the buses. As of now, the proposal is in the initial stage as we have to work out the modalities on how to go about it considering the large number of buses (6,700),” a senior official in the BMTC said on the condition of anonymity. But the project will take time as the BMTC is also looking into how much money it would have to spend on the exercise.

Commuters seem to like the idea. Manjula, a 40-year-old resident of Basavanagudi, says, “I have been a regular bus commuter since I was in college. There was a time when you could tell from a distance that a government bus is approaching. But in the last few years, the BMTC has given different colours to its buses which often look ugly. It’s the private operators who have such colourful buses. Being a government transport corporation, the BMTC should bring back the old charm of a single colour so as to distinguish its buses,” she suggested.

Another regular commuter, 53-year-old Prakash, welcomed the idea, saying that would “add credibility and seriousness to the BMTC bus service.”