The fiscal year has ended, but Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) which had announced that 850 buses would be inducted into its fleet in 2011-12, has failed to meet the target. Not even half that number has been inducted. But the department authorities have said that the remaining buses would be included in the fleet within the next few months. All the new buses will have built-in speed governors and adhere to the highest emission standards.
Of the new buses, 100 were to be Volvos. The Corporation has a fleet of over 6,092 buses covering a 36 km radius from the city centre. In a day it operates 583 city and 1,785 suburban routes, running 13 lakhs km and making 79,445 trips. Around 400 buses from the new fleet were to replace old buses that have crossed 10 lakh km. “We have procured around 300 buses and the rest will come soon. Bus manufacturers, like Tata, are taking time to deliver new buses as they will be Bharat Stage-4 emission compliant. We are receiving 5-10 buses from the manufacturers per month,” said BMTC Chief Traffic Manager (Operations) M.P. Prabhu Das.
All the new buses will adhere to the speed governor rule of the transport department, which was passed in November 2012. The buses will have a speed limit of 65 kmph. “Ashok Leyland, Volvo and Tata are supplying buses with inbuilt speed governors. But the cost of vehicles remains the same,” said BMTC General Manager (Technical) H. Baburao.