Following the transfer of ownership of most bus stands by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to the BMTC, the Palike has now drawn up grand plans for the remaining 200 which are still under their jurisdiction.

As a remedial measure, the BBMP has identified 200 bus stands within the core area of Bangalore to be operated under the build-operate-transfer (BOT) system.

The BBMP has already finalised five agencies under the BOT system for running these bus shelters. The agencies will be operating it for a period of three years, following which they will transfer them to the BMTC. “This will be our last operation for taking care of the bus shelters,” informed a BBMP official.

The Palike officials further state that they have also asked the BMTC to build new bus shelters in the outlying areas. “We have asked them to add new bus shelters for the outlying areas, where the BMTC will be paying us a royalty for generating revenue from the advertisements,” the official said.   

JnNURM funds

But what about the apparent dearth of bus-shelters in the City? Syed Pasha, Director of BMTC says: “It has been only around two months since the authority to maintain the bus-shelters was handed over to BMTC and it will therefore take some time for them to develop and maintain the shelters.”

The BMTC has planned to utilise the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) funds for building the new bus shelters in the outlying areas.