Written By ss87 - 27 June, 2011

Bangalore BMTC Bus Analysis fares Transportation public transport

While there have been good inputs of routes and various features like Bus Day and other things going fine there was a huge blow-rise in diesel rates by Rs.3 a litre. Immediately there was a bus fare increase announced by the transport corporations-was this hike seriously necessary??

The diesel fares rose by Rs.3. An average BMTC bus gives about 4kmpl(Written on the right side over the diesel tank)-and some new ones go up to 5kmpl. that means an avreage increase of about 75paise per litre. and the number of passengers travelling by bus is about an avreage of 40-45-meaning there is absoultely just about 1 to 1p increase per passenger-but the effect-there has been increase of Re.1 per kilometer on average which means its an absolute complete revenue per pasenger to that increase of fare. 

Now where did BMTC use the revenue-apart from regular administrative expenses the following others take place

1. Replacement/procurement of buses-this wasnt done last year according to latst news-previous to that procurement was from JNNURM funds
2. Construction of bus stands/TTMC's-mainly again through JNNURM funds as clearly displayed
3. Issue of school concessional passes-subsidised by Government-BMTC's website generally doest take into consideration calculating its revenue and same is mentioned there
4. Day passes and other passes- It was a good initiative by BMTC followed in other states too- but the catch here is at present even if it meant changing 2 buses minimum ther eought to use a day pass for the fares are so high-on the other hand if fares were lesser why would people opt for day pass-once people opting for day passes reduce, resale of the same would reduce-the same would lead to more revenue.  
5. volvo buses- suppossed to be incurring losses in the start they have started to make profit-and like ordinary buses tech parks like Manyata and associations like ORRCA have started hiring them too which means there is a assured revenue there-So this is not an issue anymore

Its a sheer thing that BMTC has failed to analyse the following aspects:

1. The starting stages jump by Rs.2-for travelling 3 kms if a person has to shell out Rs.8 2 wheeler becomes cheaper option-more agile people prefer to walk the distance rather than paying the same-and people in groups take an auto-so these are revenue losses for BMTC-if the fare hike in the starting stages is reduced BMTC can definitely increase its revenue by leaps and bound as many people travel shorter distances rather than longer
2. The scheduling the depot trips arent proper-a bus generally runs empty to the depot from nearest bus stand-meaning diesel is consumed but there is no revenue in that thing-generally noticable in afternoons
3. The other aspect(Regarding volvo especially) - there are only 4 depots capable of handling volvo-why should these buse stravel all the way to sepot instead of resting at the bus stands itselfs in the afternoon-you find many buses with board of Silk board or Kamakhya plying one after the other without passengers-rather they can remain at ITPL/Banashankari or embark short trips to majestic - The other thing is improper allocation of depots-258C(Nelamangla to Majestic) and 335E(ITPL to majestic) have sheds at Kathriguppe instead of majestic-in the end they ply one behin dthe other towards depot from majestic and in majority cases empty. why cant they be housed at majestic which too is a volvo depot instead of wasting diesel all the way??

Apart from all these things Government grants doesnt seem to suffice-the taxes and all other levies are higher in Karnataka compared to other states-despite this revenue looks like Govt is greedy for more-if it can subsidise the exenses of BMTC with this revenue consumers will not be burning holes in the pocket-where did this revenue go??

Also when a vast netwrok like Railways have managed funds well and havent even thought of rising the fares why is BMTC unable to do so despite such high fares bein charged already-where is all the revenue earned these days go??

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