Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation

Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation

A BMTC Volvo bus.
Slogan	Moving you most economically Bringing Bangalore to your doorstep
Founded	1940
Headquarters	Central Office, K H Road, Shanthinagar, Bangalore
Locale	Bangalore
Service area	Bangalore Urban
Service type	Local, limited-stop, express, and BRT bus service
Fleet	6122
Daily ridership	43,000,00
Operator	Government of Karnataka
Web site	www.bmtcinfo.com

The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) is a government agency that operates the public transport bus service in Bangalore, India.

History

Inside a BMTC bus.

In 1997 BMTC was formed as the result of a split of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, in the context of the city's expansion. The Bangalore Transport Service(BTS) became Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation and the colour scheme was changed from red to a blue and white combination.

BMTC remains a division of KSRTC.

Types of services

A BMTC Volvo bus.

1. Ordinary:

• Blue and White: The old buses with ordinary fares. Buses introduced after 2001 have pneumatic doors. Parisara Vahini ordinary buses also sport the same color and were introduced between 2002 and 2008 with pneumatic doors. Parisara Vahini buses introduced from 2007 onwards have head rest seats.

• Light blue buses: The new ordinary bus under the JnNURM scheme with low floors and LED boards. They also have an LED board inside the bus which displays the next stop the bus is approaching.

• Marcopolo Non-AC: These buses are also introduced under the JnNURM scheme. They also have low floors. They have LED boards both for displaying route number/route and the approaching stop.

• Red buses: Introduced w.e.f December 2011, the buses belong to new batch of ordinaries that have arrived in the city with BS IV emmission norms-majority of them are red in colour and a few of them in the light blue colour

2. Suvarna: Silver coloured with red lining. Earlier they had Re.1 higher fare than ordinary. Since the revision of fares in June 2010, Suvarna and Ordinary bus tickets cost the same. Many Suvarna buses are now being re-painted into the white and blue color or converted into Big cirlce/Small Circle buses/Metro Feeder services

3. BIG 10: BIG10 services deploy (Suvarna class of) buses branded in green and bottle green on 12 major corridors coming in from surrounding sub-urbs in the city - Hosur road, Bannerghatta road, Sarjpura road, Kanakapura road, Mysore road etc. These buses are run on a direction based concept where the commuter takes the next (high frequency, every 15 minutes) bus in his/her direction of travel, and if need be, makes a change over to another bus to reach the destination. The service terminates on different points on the radius of the city core, to avoid congesting the city centre. These buses are numbered with a G prefix.

4. BIG Circle: These buses are white colored with BIG Circle written on the sides and it also has arrows painted in green, red, orange and black. These buses ply on ring roads connecting various parts of the city. Some of these buses are numbered with a C prefix and others are numbered with a K prefix(small circle on Inner Ring road).

5. Pushpak: Launched in the late 90's. Single door bus with/without conductors. Driver acts as conductor when there is no conductor (Janapriya Vahini). These are coffee coloured buses with fares similar to Suvarna. Generally provided on contract to IT companies and schools.

6. Vajra: Hi-tech buses from Volvo running on routes serving the IT companies' locations and various residential routes as well. Higher fares about 1.5 to 3 times that of ordinary depending on the route. LED boards.

7. Vayu Vajra: Volvo buses to airport operated from 12 routes. Free Wi-Fi access is provided to the commuters in these buses.

8. Atal Sarige: Low-cost buses with single seats along the windows and LED display. Have a tri-colour outside. On 1 June 2009, to celebrate their first anniversary, the Government of Karnataka and the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation sold off a pro-poor bus service called the Atal Sarige. The service aims at providing low-cost connectivity for the economically backward sections of the society to the nearest major bus station.

9. Marcopolo AC: Buses from Tata-Marcopolo collaboration introduced under the JnNURM scheme. Their fare is costilier by 1.5times the fare of ordinary buses. Usually ply on routes where volvo is not popular.

10.Metro Feeder: Introduced w.e.f October 2011 after the launch of the 1st line of metro, these buses have painting similar to the colour of the Metro train and running on 10 routes as feeder to the Metro stations

BMTC has currently introduced Mercedes Benz buses on a trial basis.

Fares

Fares of BMTC are considered to be the highest in the country with respect to the starting stages. However they are not very costly in the later stages. They range from Rs 4/- a km in the first stages to Rs 1/- per km as the distance increases.

The highlight of the BMTC is the daily pass provided at Rs.45/- per day (Rs 40/- for those having BMTC identity cards). It can be used for travel in any bus except the air conditioned ones. It is valid up to midnight on the day of purchase and available with all conductors. AC Bus pass is available for Rs.90/-

On producing ID cards (voter's card, driving license, etc.), BMTC provides concession of 25% in fares to senior citizens in all types of buses. This came into effect on 1 September 2008.

Children below the age of 12 are given 50% concession.

Major bus stations

1. Kempegowda Bus Station: This is right opposite the city railway station. Bus services are available to the entire city from here. A depot is present here within the station.

2. K. R. Market: Another important bus station located in an area with many private bus services. Buses are available to all parts of Bengaluru besides far off Anekal and Hosur.

3. Shivajinagar: Located in one of Bengaluru's commercial areas and about 2 km from Bangalore Cantonment Railway Station.

4. Shantinagar: Near the Central office of KSRTC and BMTC. BMTC Depot 2 and Depot 3 are located here. It is well connected to South and South East Bangalore and the Majestic and Shivajinagar areas.

5. MCTC: Located on Mysore road. Well connected to Mysore road, Vijayanagar and Chamrajpet apart from Market and Majestic.

6. Banashankari Bus Station: This is another important bus station located on Kanakapura Road, close to the Outer Ring Road. It is well connected to all the areas on the inner and outer ring road. 201, 205, 500, 600 are the important routes which start/pass through Banashankari. From market, all buses between 211 and 217B pass through Banashankari. The TTMC was inaugurated on 4 December 2011.

Infrastructure

BMTC has six bus stations in Bangalore. Apart from these, it also has a number of minor terminuses. It has 34 depots spread all over Bangalore (Depot 1 closed for Shantinagar; 2 others also closed because of TTMC construction) out of which 31 are operational. BMTC aims to build 6 more depots on the city outskirts.

BMTC is also constructing modern bus stations at 10 places in its first phase. These will have places to park vehicles and a separate waiting room for airport-bound passengers with the timings displayed. As of April 2011, the station at Jayanagar 4th block, Kengeri, Vijayanagar and whitefield have been opened.

Records

• BMTC was the first in the country to introduce intra-city Volvo buses. Earlier, they were well received on the IT sector routes but are now patronised on all routes in the city.
• It has the record for making profits consistently for years.
• It has the youngest fleet of buses in the country due to which the KMPL is also higher compared to other undertakings.
• BMTC is one of the few undertakings to introduce pneumatic doors in India even in its fleet of ordinary buses to provide safety for passengers. Currently, buses in Chennai and Hyderabad als have adopted this system.
• Operates the longest city bus route in India: Route no. 600 (circular bus route) which starts from Banashankari and covers 117 kilometres (73 mi) round trip to reach Banashankari, covering BTM layout 100 feet road, Hosur Road, NH-207 (Attibelle to Varthur), ITPL, K. R. Pura, Hebbal, NH-4 (Tumkur Road), SH-17 (Mysore Road), Banashankari Ring Road. It traverses an entire circle covering these places to reach Banashankari.
• BMTC buses crossed nearly 4.5 Million passenger ticket sales everyday, which is a record by itself.^{[citation needed]}

Bus Day

Introduced on 4 February 2010. It is an event calling all the citizens of Bengaluru to use public transport. The idea behind Bus Day is to observe the changes which can be brought in the city in trying to respect Environment, Traffic Situation, Health of individuals Perception. The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) campaigned for this day long event with support from the traffic police, Information Technology companies and their employees, and members of Praja.in (a web portal for civic activism). Since then the 4th of every month is observed as a "Bus Day".

See also

• Bangalore
• BMTC routes

External links

• BMTC official website
• Bangalore Transport Information System
• BusBus.in - Local Bus Routes for Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai
• BMTCRoutes.in - A platform to Search bus routes in Bangalore City
• Bangalore Bus Route Planner
• The project group behind Bus Day
• Map Based Route Planner
• Bus Search Made Easy