BMTC | Bangalore Metropolitan Bus Transport Corporation Updates

[Rakeshmblore]

Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation says thank you with five bus services

The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) on Friday celebrated the first anniversary of its Bus Day with BMTC managing director Syed Zameer Pasha flagging off BMTC buses on five routes from Koramangala, Indiranagar, Domlur, Banashankari, and Rajajinagar to Outer Ring Road (ORR).

The routes were the BMTC’s way of thanking the ORR companies which have been instrumental in conceiving and nurturing the idea of Bus Day.

“Five buses with 200 people will be an inspiration for more people to opt for buses in the future. We have also considered the suggestion of having a Bus Week, and we will try to work out the logistics and many other things related to infrastructure to ensure that people trust us for better transportation,” said Pasha.
To motivate Bangaloreans to commute via buses, BMTC has been religiously observing the Bus Day on the fourth of every month.

It all started when Praja —an Internet-based blog service — started an online forum for the public to discuss their concerns and also voice out their opinions and suggestions to make bus services better.
Praja took the government officials, academia and transportation experts on board to discuss the plausibility of encouraging people to take public transport for a day, which would, as a result, motivate them take buses everyday.

“People of the city have an indifference and negativity towards the system, so we had to make them feel good about the public transport — BMTC. We wanted to make them feel good about taking a BMTC bus and also create a social impact where they feel they are doing their bit for the environment in reducing pollution,” said SV Jenny Pinto, member of Praja.

“BMTC helped in identifying corridors where many buses could be operated at higher frequency, mostly in the IT hubs in the city. The workforce in IT sector are usually FM radio fans, so we partnered with a radio channel that highlighted the need to use public transport. We also hosted interesting competitions to motivate people to take the bus,” said Pinto.

Praja was supported by the Outer Ring Roads Companies Association (ORRCA) for making the idea work. ORRCA is mainly formed out of companies in the tech hub of Ecospace and hundreds of techies, who generally either opted for their office cabs or their private vehicles.

“I have been using the BMTC since I was a child and I am a fan of their services. When this idea occurred to me, I thought this was my chance to do something for my city to help people have safer and better transportation,” said Seetharam Vishwanath, general secretary of ORRCA.

“We keep our ORRCA members in the loop before each bus day and shoot mails to remind them to take a bus on this day. Gradually, people have started taking buses every other day,” said Vishwanath.

“When this idea was conceived by Praja, we knew that this is an opportunity to aggressively campaign for public transportation,” said Pasha.

When the day became popular among people, BMTC got Karnataka State Pollution Control Board into the programme and asked them to keep a tab on pollution levels, as it was expected that with more people opting for buses, the pollution levels are bound to go down.

“I have worked for this cause since December 2009 and finally I got BMTC service on ORR for all these companies. This was indeed a gift for all of us on the Outer Ring Road and a pleasure to be a part of the first anniversary of BMTC’s Bus Day,” said Vishwanath.

[gentem]

Bus Day completes a successful year
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: It’s been a year since the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) launched the Bus Day programme. Officials say the initiative has been successful and it will begin the second year of Bus Day on Friday.

During the second year, BMTC plans to introduce a Bus Week for commuters.

From February 4, 2010, the transport corporation introduced extra buses along twelve corridors of the city on the 4th of every month. The corporation tied up with IT/ITeS companies to encourage their employees to use bus transport on this day. Studies indicated that at least 5,000 cars were off the road on this day, bringing down pollution levels. BMTC buses passed through Old Madras Road, Old Airport Road, Sarjapur Road, Hosur Road, Bannerghatta Road, Mysore Road, Tumkur Road, Kanakpura Road, Bellary Road, Magadi Road and Hennur Road as part of initiative.

10% is "considerably low" pollution and i dont find any basis for these stats.. 5000 more people travelled over existing ridership of 40 lakh, that is 0.1% more, and they say that many cars were off the road

I have asked a conductor what is this bus day.. he says they deny all bmtc staff of a leave on that day, thats all they do

[vlakshmi_n]

On the Bus day, few IT companies have clearly instructed their employee's to take the Bus & any employee who gets his 2/4 wheeler have to shell out a parking fee which is given to some social cause. I believe this initiative from the few companies would have given few thousands additional people to travel by Bus. I am indeed forced to use the Bus by my company.

[gentem]

once in a while just for a change its ok to use bus.. r u offended that u r forced? parking fees in the company u work looks very innovative idea actually they can impose parking fees on non-yellow numberplate vehicles of parking fees all days - for 4 wheelers if not for poor 2 wheeler guys

[vlakshmi_n]

Nope I do support the Bus Day, regularly we car pool, but on Bus Day none of us need to drive in traffic, rather its a relaxed day to sit & travel in Vajra.

[Rakeshmblore]

Yeshavanthapur new bus terminal

[Mahesh Nanjunda]

This image is for those geniuses dismissing BMTC's Bus Day initiative :

[Indian Sun]

Interesting find.

But somehow I have hardly seen any reduction in traffic on bus days, nor any increasing patronage (this is with regard to Hosur Road from Silk Board to EC1 and the bus routes 356C,356N,356M,360B,505A,505 and G2). Maybe it's not visible at eye level.

[Mahesh Nanjunda]

Rationalization of routes is required to further increase patronage. (Example: providing routes that are less circuitous, and reducing the number of changes that one needs to make during a one-way commute) Increasing frequency of Volvo buses also helps. Praja has a lot of ideas on this subject..

[gentem]

Originally Posted by Mahesh Nanjunda

This image is for those geniuses dismissing BMTC's Bus Day initiative :

looks silly. this is how they say 5000 cars reduced on bus day i had read on a bmtc bus saying a bus reduces 40 cars but not many are as rich to take car alone, but they generally car pool upto 5 people.. what about private company cabs and two wheelers? moreover public transport takes longer and walking takes time and fatigue too, so gdp productivity of a person reduced drastically hurting nation and bus day little to do with success of bmtc

but one request to mahesh nanjunda, please post one post/comment about SSC I in praja. just write this is lil more happy forum compared to cribbers' forum of praja where always ppl whine

[naveen_blr]

BMTC is here for money All they look for is profits Havent u heard of heart attack of the 35 year old in 500D on Sunday?
Harsh working conditions for drivers.
They are now leasing out their Vajras to MBP in order to make profits , which has reduced the buses on Hebbal -> Silk Board Stretch

[Mahesh Nanjunda]

Originally Posted by gentem

looks silly. this is how they say 5000 cars reduced on bus day i had read on a bmtc bus saying a bus reduces 40 cars but not many are as rich to take car alone, but they generally car pool upto 5 people.. what about private company cabs and two wheelers? moreover public transport takes longer and walking takes time and fatigue too, so gdp productivity of a person reduced drastically hurting nation and bus day little to do with success of bmtc

but one request to mahesh nanjunda, please post one post/comment about SSC I in praja. just write this is lil more happy forum compared to cribbers' forum of praja where always ppl whine

Verbal diarrhoea as usual.. wipe your mouth.

[gentem]

It is not my fault but fault of SSC mods who dont ban people who take the word Praja here.. And praja people start abusing exactly from second comment which i have noticed - bait and switch. Praja ppl regularly come here to sh*g do they think ssc is a bathroom?

some praja people registered here just to post about praja. and they abuse too. these accounts like idontspam (posts), mahesh (posts) etc who post only if something about praja is there to say. Every comment is either about praja or an no-holds-barred abuse coz they dont care anybody here. why mods dont take action against those? they have no respect for ssc and think it is one useless forum. no respect means they treat this forum as their bathroom

[nandan_ks]

can we stop this please

[ullasavadan]

Originally Posted by gentem

looks silly. this is how they say 5000 cars reduced on bus day i had read on a bmtc bus saying a bus reduces 40 cars but not many are as rich to take car alone, but they generally car pool upto 5 people.. what about private company cabs and two wheelers? moreover public transport takes longer and walking takes time and fatigue too, so gdp productivity of a person reduced drastically hurting nation and bus day little to do with success of bmtc

but one request to mahesh nanjunda, please post one post/comment about SSC I in praja. just write this is lil more happy forum compared to cribbers' forum of praja where always ppl whine

Have you done MBA in HR or BE in Industrial Engineering & Management?

Taking your point then we need to stop Mumbai locals and start point to point company transportation in all major cities like Mumbai.

Also, how about stress that a person driving a car gets by driving in such a messy traffic? Will he not have fatigue too and reduce gdp productivity which will hurt the nation?

Come on man grow up. Don't argue just for the sake of argument.

[gentem]

mumbai is the only successful among all suburban trains in whole of india I dont argue with such comments. and now mumbai is falling behind only because of this suburban trains, delhi is catching up with metro.

and you changed subject, do you believe one public bus reduces 40 cars on road?

[gentem]

I like your consistency in cropping up once in a while on sole purpose. But i aint going to take the bait

[bk3494]

Hi Guys, Just Posting Some Drawings.

1.)


2.)


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4.)


5.)


6.)

[vlakshmi_n]

That's cool, Bharat

[Indian Sun]

Fantastic work, Bharat. The drawings are accurate to the last detail.