Crushing burden on the poor: Ramalinga Reddy rejects Mohandas Pai’s call for private buses, defends BMTC’s scale

Bengaluru: Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy Thursday reacted sharply to Mohandas Pai's suggestion to allow private city bus operations in Bengaluru. 

He even invited the former Infosys CFO to a face-to-face debate with the managing director of the state-run Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC). 

"Are you ready to step up, or will you just keep tweeting? Your view is not just biased—it is fundamentally dogmatic," he wrote on X. 

The intense debate flared up after DH reported that the Centre had awarded the first contract under the PM E-Drive Scheme for the deployment of 1,750 electric buses in Bengaluru. The BMTC will get a total of 4,500 buses under the scheme and aims to expand its fleet to 10,000 in two years. 

Writing on X, urbanist Ashwin Mahesh noted that Bengaluru's current bus deficit is over 10,000 and will reach 11,000 in two years. 

Adding over 4,000 buses is not even half-way there. Judging by past announcements and pace of delivery, he doubted that the buses will be delivered in two years. He also highlighted that the BMTC does not have a data-based system of assigning new buses to meet mobility needs and that its route rationalisation is incomplete. 

Quote-tweeting Mahesh's post, Pai tagged the transport minister, saying "you have thoroughly failed to ensure adequate public transport", and urged the state government to allow private city bus services. 

In his counter, Reddy strongly defended the government-run bus corporation. 

Unlike private players, he noted, 30% of government bus routes operate at a loss for students and rural citizens in remote villages, 30% operate at break-even, and 98% of villages across the state have bus connectivity. 

"Karnataka operates 26,054 buses; in Bengaluru alone, we serve nearly 45 lakh commuters daily. With a fleet of 7,108 buses—including 1,686 electric buses—we cover over 13 lakh km and 66,000 trips every day, the highest in India. Show me a single BJP-ruled city or state, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat, that matches this scale and efficiency. 

"In just the last 2 years, we inducted 5,800+ new buses. By March 2026, another 2,000+ buses will be on the roads. During the BJP tenure (2019-2023), when bus inductions were frozen and corporations were left to rot, why didn’t you raise a single question? Why does your "corporate concern" only wake up when a pro-people government is performing? Private operators shut down the moment profits dip. How would that help a common man in Bengaluru who earns a daily wage?" he wrote.