Bangalore, March 8, 2013: Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), one of the largest state-owned agencies operating city buses in India, is to send a proposal to buy 2,000 new buses under the extended Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme in the recently announced Union Budget.
Talking to Autocar Professional on the sidelines of a government function held today in Bangalore, BMTC managing director Anjum Parwez (pictured) said the Union government has recently sent a communiqué to BMTC asking for the new proposal to support the urban transport sector as the JNNURM scheme has been extended till March 2014 as per the Budget 2013-14. In his recent Budget speech, the finance minister has allocated Rs 14,873 crore to the JNNURM scheme, in which a large part of the funds will be used to support the purchase of around 10,000 buses across the country, especially by hill states.
“We are preparing three types of proposals for the transport sector in Bangalore. One is to purchase new buses of different types and another to seek funds to upgrade commuter facilities. Yet another proposal is related to technology enhancement in the transport sector like installing cameras, LEDs and GPS,” said Parwez. He said the BMTC has recently taken a decision in its board meeting to send these proposals to avail funds.
Under the new proposal, he said the transport corporation plans to buy 2,000 new buses of different types like AC, non-AC and 32-seater minibuses.During the earlier JNNURM scheme, BMTC bought 1,000 buses in 2011, he added. The total project cost to buy these buses was Rs 400 crore, in which 35 percent came from the Centre and 15 percent shared by the state government while the rest has been borne by BMTC as per JNNURM norms, said Parwez.
In the past, he said, the transport corporation bought buses from the major bus manufacturers including Volvo, Tata and Ashok Leyland.
For the new purchases, he said the government agency will float tenders to choose the supplier. Out of proposed 2,000 new buses under the extended JNNURM scheme, he said around 10 percent or 200 buses will be in the premium segment and 20 percent will cover 32-seater buses and the remaining fleet will be of normal Bharat Stage-IV buses.
He said the proposal to buy 2,000 buses will be sent to the steering committee of the state government, which in turn will screen the proposal and send it to the Union government. Later, the committee in the Union government will decide over the fund allocation, he said, while adding, “We wish to get funds as much as possible.” BMTC will be submitting its proposal to the state government in the next two weeks’ time, he added.
BMTC was the first Indian public sector enterprise to introduce Volvo buses in 2006 to commute passengers in Bangalore city.
BMTC, which is one of largest transport corporations in the country, services 4.8 million commuters every day in Bangalore city and has a fleet of over 6,443 buses covering an area with a radius of 36 kilometres from the city centre. Every day, BMTC operates 583 city and 1,785 suburban routes, running 13.05 lakh kilometres and making 80,781 trips. The agency serves public with 39 depots and 50 bus stations across the city. The current per day traffic revenue of BMTC stands at around Rs 4.31 crore.
JAISHANKAR JAYARAMIAH