COVID-19 curbs play spoilsport for BMTC's daily ridership

The road to normality is fraught with multiple challenges for the BMTC, with officials saying enforcing COVID-19 restrictions is of primary concern now rather than achieving the revenue target.

On Tuesday, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) resumed operations with about 2,000 buses and saw a revenue of Rs 63 lakh, while facing complaints about its costly and compulsory daily bus pass rule.

However, officials said they were operating with a fine balance and that allowing cash transactions would disturb the arrangement.

"We know that reducing the pass fare will bring more people to the buses. We are working on the modalities for the same. The daily pass cost Rs 70 earlier, too. We introduced the weekly pass for Rs 300 to help the poor people who travel regularly,” said C Shikha, managing director, BMTC.

Even before the pandemic struck, the financial condition of the city transporter had worsened due to rising fuel prices and operation costs. Its cumulative losses had crossed Rs 800 crore last year.

Shikha noted that the corporation was operating under restrictions of Lockdown 4.0 and not focusing on revenue.

"Starting normal operations will not help contain the pandemic, but we will run 3,000 buses from Monday onwards. Our focus at this point is on social-distancing measures rather than revenue,” she said.

As the number of buses was increased to 2,500 on Wednesday, the revenue increased to Rs 83 lakh. The numbers are far off the mark of the Rs 3.5-crore average daily revenue clocked during the pre-pandemic days.

An official in the operations asked people to refrain from unnecessary travel. "People need to show responsibility and avoid travelling as much as possible. Drivers and conductors are putting themselves on the frontline. The essential sector workers and the poor are travelling due to a lack of other options. Others should avoid the buses for now,” he said.