With the burgeoning number of illegal private buses and cabs plying in the periphery of the City, the Transport department has just got help from the BMTC. The  BMTC is hit worst by illegal operations of private buses as they eat into its revenue.

Every time the enforcement wing of the Transport department goes out to nab illegal vehicles which include buses, cars and maxi cabs, it is accompanied by 35 to 40 personnel from the BMTC’s enforcement wing, along with several buses, for assistance.

BMTC’s help has come as a boon to the Transport department which has been reeling from shortage of staff. The Transport department officials say that carrying out enforcement drives has become easier with additional staff and buses. “Now, illegal cabs or buses can be easily towed to the BMTC depots where these are kept till the owners pay the penalty and get their vehicles freed. Also, the BMTC staff can be sent along with the seized illegal vehicles safely to avoid situations where the drivers either flee or dodge the enforcement staff and take the vehicles somewhere else, instead of the designated place,” the official said.

 BMTC Managing Director Ekroop Caur, said, “We are sending buses and staff for assistance in the enforcement drives conducted by the Transport department. The private buses have been illegally plying without proper permits and on routes which they are not authorised to ply on.”

The BMTC officials have even gone to the extent of videographing buses operating on certain routes such as the IT corridors of the City and have handed over the evidence to the Transport department.

BMTC officials have managed to capture private operators at more than two dozen places in the City alone. The officials have even identified that most of the illegal operations of buses and maxi cabs are undertaken in areas like Whitefield, Electronic City, Hebbal, Tin Factory, and near the Silk Board Junction, Bannerghatta Road, Outer Ring Road and other localities.