JOIN USBengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) will add 335 new buses to its existing fleet of buses in a month.
M Nagaraju Yadav, chairman, BMTC, told DH that the process of procuring 335 ordinary buses is in the final stage. “Tata Motors has won the tender and talks are going on. In a month or two, we may place order,” he said.
“The (BMTC) board has followed bus specifications of the standard size urban bus, which is issued by the Central government. We have selected the bus with BS IV emission norms. Consisting of 43 seats, the new buses will have LED display the information of routes in four sides of the bus, voice announcement,” he said.
A BMTC official said the price of each bus is around Rs 28 lakh. “At least 900 buses are running beyond 9 lakh km and their maintenance becomes costly. We will scrap the old buses in a phased manner,” Yadav said adding that the city needs another 1,500 to 2,000 buses.
Electric, midi buses
Apart from these buses, BMTC had also proposed to induct 150 electric buses and another 500 buses (150 A/C and 350 midi buses) under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) scheme. In all, BMTC has 6,203 buses, including 700 Volvo and Corona buses.