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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
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
malini - 20 December, 2008 - 09:33
thampan - 21 December, 2008 - 08:35
With traffic decongestion being the key, the primary aim of the Bangalore Metro is to encourage commuters to leave their vehicles in their garages and use public transport. Positioned as a complementary, rather than competitive mode of transport, the Bangalore Metro will work in tandem with other transport systems like buses and mono rails.
The city bus corridors will not run parallel to Bangalore Metro corridors, instead buses will act as feeders. The mono rail network planned for the city will not overlap with that of the metro, but will connect at major junctions as feeders.
On certain high density corridors, three wheelers will be regulated. Feeder bus services will be provided to all the metro stations. Bus bays and parking facilities for private vehicles will be available at all major stations. State-of-the-art satellite bus-cum-metro terminals are being planned in the city outskirts, to control the entry of inter-city buses.
BMTC would act as a feeder service to the Metro once the Metro lines are up and running. I think a realistic estimate for the first line would be at least 2010 end. ( given the progress seen on the roads) BMTC may also run parallel routes during peak hours to take care of the extra load which the Metro cannot handle. But during non peak hours, there would not be any competition.
silkboard - 21 December, 2008 - 09:25
1) Professionalize its high-end (Volvo, Marco Polo) services. The re-branded or new venture could basically be given the aim of targeting car, auto and most of bike users who commute on long distance trunk routes.
2) Recognize that BMTC is not catering to the local shuttle needs. This reduces the reach of its other long distance services, and also adds some needless short-haul traffic on major roads (which should carry only medium to long distance traffic).
For both #1 and #2, let BMTC/KSRTC decide how they would do it. For #1, they could launch a PPP, or just privatize certain trunk routes within the city. For #2 again, BMTC could do its own local shuttle service, or just privatize the local shuttle space, or create a regulatory mechanism to make more efficient use of auto-rickshaws in local transportation system (see this old post on Auto Transit authority).
BMTC could retain its current business - running trunk route services targeted at the majority of commuters. Its anyway losing money on Volvo services (this is to be confirmed, need an RTI here), and is anyway not doing anything on local shuttles front.
Big thing to say, but looks to me that BMTC wont lose much by doing above two things, its a win-win for both BMTC and Bangalore.
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
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