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So, will BMTC do one of this?
Written By silkboard - 12 October, 2008
Bangalore BMTC BMLTA Privatization KSRTC Reforms Complaint public transport
I was waiting for one of these two to happen. What if:
- BMTC bids to operate buses in liberalized UP transport sector?
- BMRC (Bangalore Metro) orders its own fleet of buses to make sure it gets good numbers to reliably reach all their stations?
Why #1? Because, if BMTC and KSRTC take pride in being te best transportation company in our country, why wouldn't they go bid for the UP routes. Why #2? Because, Delhi Metro is ordering more buses to run feeder services around its stations. (refer biz-standard, last week), so why shouldn't BMRC not think on same lines?
The second development could be interesting, because that would effectively bring in some competition for BMTC. Would a dose of competition in local bus service space help or not, we have had enough debates on various forums. Don't get me wrong, BMTC is perhaps the best in country. But if we want our city to be Singapore, Shanghai or Sydney, the bar has got to be much much higher. Look at some of this:
- While the mantra is decongestion, BMTC is still operating with Majestic as a mother of all hubs, whereas the area increasingly doesn't count as either residential or business epicenter of the city. Alright, we heard about TTMCs, but we have not seen anything that says their routing schemes would change once a few TTMCs get ready.
- Grid based routing, multiple satellite hubs model, one Parameswaran model - there are tons of ideas on the table, but no real progress at all on optimizing its routes to bus ratio which is too high.
- To the best of our knowledge, BMTC and BMRC haven't been working on coordinating catchment areas around Metro stations.
- They bought Volvo buses worth Rs 70 lakh each not so long ago for running its top tier services. Now, the word doing rounds is that Tata Marco Polo buses, each worth Rs 35-40 lakhs could be preferred over Volvo for new set of low-floor models. Are they just short on cash now, or did they goof up in their earlier evaluations?
- No action at all on local shuttles to increase 'footprint' or 'spread' of each trunk route.
- No initiative shown on BRTS. By initiative I mean a study to either support or rule out possibilities of bus corridors. Lets ignore the "report" by Mr M N Sreehari on BRTS for NH7 beyond Hebbal because that is not where we need help right now, we are talking about the city. BTW, if you ask BMTC about BRTS, they'd say go ask BBMP or BDA, they own the roads.
Its time for the next set of reforms to set the transportation sector in our state free of controls and inefficiencies of public sector. The time to raise the pressure on them is now, because things would get complicated once BMTC completes its IPO.
PS: This is an expect-more type post, and not a general rant against BMTC. I am not holding them responsible for congestion in Bangalore City, only saying that they hold the keys to quickest time-to-market as well as impact-ful solutions to decongest our city. In short, they are good, but need to be much better. And I wonder what can make them take some solid initiatives to get there.
COMMENTS
Answer from BMRC on feeder service
silkboard - 17 October, 2008 - 08:43
I got a chance to interact with Mr Sivasailam yesterday, and among other things I asked this question to him - will BMRC consider operating feeder bus service to ensure efficiency of catchment area around each station. I told him about the arrangement at Delhi (see above comment, they have their own feeder mini-bus service)
He said he will like to work with BMTC, there is no point competing with them. Cooperation will be more efficient use of resources than trying to do a bus service of his own. Also, Devesh and others were quick to add, that Delhi Transport Corporation and BMTC are two different things with contrasting reputations.
Anyway, he said he will look at the Delhi arrangement to understand it. His replies were genuine and spontaneous, so please don't make this a big issue. We should anyway get a chance soon to ask this question in a Praja-group.
This particular ideology apart, I must say that Mr Sivasailam seemed impressive with all the handy stats on BMRC's finances and civil engineering details of ongoing work. Gives very fact based answers, and seemed like a man of numbers. Nice.
BMRC - About Ph-1 South Extension
Naveen - 17 October, 2008 - 12:23
SB,
Re. yr meeting with Sivasailam - I think we need to clarify many other things, too.
Progress of work appears rather slow - when is tunnel boring going to begin ? Have the tunnel boring machines arrived or is all work going to be cut & cover ? If cut & cover is used, all of the road sections where underground construction is on wud be out of service. If this is the case, will construction be handled in a phased manner for underground sections ? What provisions will be made for traffic & people movement ?
Why has BMRC not started working together with BMTC & other agencies to plan & organize dedicated, fast feeder services for the Metro ? If they do not start recognizing early that appropriate steps need to be taken well in time before commencement to ensure it's success, the Metro may bleed them & it may never become successful, dogged by criticism & an unwavering public opinion.
There also appears to be some lack of foresight in their alignment planning on the extension towards the south. I had sent them a query about this, but have'nt heard anything yet in reply from them (Pls refer http://praja.in/bangalore/discuss/2008/08/metro-phase-ii#comment-8626).
Hope we get a chance to hear about all this from them - or should we RTI them ?
Online Bus Position Indication System for Delhi BRT buses
Vasanth - 22 December, 2008 - 11:57
This link gives online bus position and expected bus at a bus stop. Also, there is info about the bus arrivals on a particular bus stop - all developed by dimts.
http://www.dimts.in/passengerinfo.html
Vasanth - Why should anyone have to go all the way to the bus stand to know when a bus is coming when the info can be made available on your mobile, which was what "Yelli Iddira?" all about.
And, to think that BMTC had it all, over two years back, but allowed it to die entangled in bureaucratic red tape!
I hear it's being revived by 'mapunity', and is to be announced soon. Good luck to them.
Muralidhar Rao
About Delhi Metro feeder buses
silkboard - 12 October, 2008 - 18:41
Stale news for Delhi residents, but in case you didn't know, private operators ply feeder buses for DMRC. See Delhi Metro's 'Metro Link" tender. Read a bit about them in this Hindu Article.
As per that tender, Metro Link is a:
A SCHEME FOR PRIVATE OPERATORS TO PLY CNG OPERATED BHARAT STAGE III FEEDER BUSES (SWARAJ MAZDA / TATA
407 / SIMILAR VEHICLES ... AS METRO LINK SERVICES ON FEEDER ROUTES TO METRO STATIONS ..
From what I figure, the buses are all braded as Delhi Metro, just that they are operated by a private party via five year long contracts that are reviewed every six months. Read that tender pdf, and you will get ideas about this London-bus like approach to reforming BMTC - they lay down the operating conditions, and let private parties operate buses under a common brand.
More from the DMRC feeder bus tender:
- The DMRC LTD. will neither collect any revenue from the operators nor compensate them for any short falls in their revenue
- Vehicles will run at a frequency as decided by the DMRC LTD. as per route length & requirement ...
Look at some of the conditions that will constitute default in tenure of the agreement:
- Delaying the bus causing dislocation of the traffic scheduled.
- Off route operation.
- Non –stoppage of bus at the scheduled bus stops for alighting and boarding of
passengers. - Allowing un-authorized persons to travel without tickets.
- Rash and negligent driving.
- Non-display of destination boards and/or defective destination board’s light.
Not sure how exactly DMRC will track all these items. But since it'd be a private party operating the buses, they will at least be in a position to do something if public files complaints.
Why doesn't BMTC make a beginning by allowing private operated feeder services for local only routes, or around its new TTMCs. They could alos let go of their Volvo services, they are anyway losing lots of money on them.
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