BMTC | Bangalore Metropolitan Bus Transport Corporation Updates

[avinash2060]

Bus terminals have miles to go

Satellite terminals, supposed to be the alternatives to the Majestic bus stand, are not yet ready

Shwetha S. Bangalore



Transport minister R Ashok may have announced that 20 acres of land at the Majestic bus terminus of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) will be handed over to the Metro Project in a week's time.
Despite the announcement, however, there is little to show for the administration's preparedness to start services from the satellite terminals, located in different parts of the city, that are meant to take the load off the central Majestic terminus.
The terminals at Shantinagar and Mysore Road have only a limited capacity to handle operations; at the other terminals, even the completion of infrastructure work seems some while away.
Officials at the KSRTC admitted that much remains to be done.
For the time being, they contend that a limited number of bus services would be shifted elsewhere: "Only about ten buses travelling to Kerala will now set out from the satellite bus station at Mysore Road. Buses plying to Mysore, Kerala and Coorg will depart from that bus terminus. About 80-90 buses plying to Tamil Nadu will be shifted to the Shantinagar bus station." This, however, will comprise only a small proportion of the number of departures from the Kempegowda or Majestic terminus.
Nearly 2,700 buses depart from Kempegowda each day. With the Metro set to take over 20 acres of the terminus, work of maintenance of the entire fleet, that is currently being handled at Kempegowda, will shift to Shantinagar.
DNA visited the Shantinagar bus terminal, only to find that it has miles to go before being able to take on the load envisaged for it.
Infrastructure work is still underway here, and workers at the site said that completion of the work will take at least a few weeks more. A senior official at the terminus said on condition of anonymity: "There are already 250 buses being garaged at the Shantinagar depot; the terminal can take a maximum load of 300 buses for garaging and maintenance." He went on to add, "Two more terminals—in addition to the three already existing—are being set up to be able to bear the extra load."
Commenting on the Mysore Road terminal, the same official said that it too was in a similar state, and that the move to make Mysore-bound buses depart from there would only add to the inconvenience of those commuting from North and East Bangalore.
All the satellite terminals — at NGEF-Old Madras Road, Hosur Road, Peenya and Yelahanka — are still some way from being operational. One official admitted that the NGEF terminus is likely to take at least another month.
Gaurav Gupta, managing director, KSRTC, said, "I agree; initially, there will be a little inconvenience for commuters, as we relocate buses from the Kempegowda bus station. We will work towards making the shifting process a smooth one, so that commuters are not troubled for long."

[Krishnamoorthy K]

Bangalore: With a view to creating a socially, environmentally and economically transport system in the city, non-governmental organisation Praja and Center for Infrastructure, Sustainable Transport and Urban Planning (CiSTUP), Indian Institute of Science, are organising MobiliCity, Bangalore’s first Sustainable Transportation Unconference on Saturday.

The panel discussion will be followed by four interactive sessions. The first, “Road design and standards: getting there”.

The other sessions will be “Multimodal transportation: seamless transit” and “Aatakkuntu, Lekkakkuntu — simulation of participation and planning in the evolution of Bangalore”.

Finally, “Urban planning and sustainable transportation: making it easy” will bring together urban planning experts for a discussion on how urban planning impacts sustainable mobility. The conference will be held between 9.30 a.m. and 5 p.m. at CiSTUP, Indian Institute of Science.

Source: The Hindu

[dineshpkm]

All Tamilnadu buses via Hosur will be diverted to Shanthi nagar?

[Krishnamoorthy K]

* There is a move to house government offices on BMTC premises

BANGALORE: A government move to house its offices on the premises of the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) may derail BMTC’s ambitious, people-friendly plans to convert them into facilities where commuters can park their vehicles, shop in malls and take the bus to work and back.

BMTC officials fear their project will remain stillborn if the Government pushes ahead with its move. Under the “one-stop shopping solution” plan, BMTC had conceptualised Travel and Transit Management Centres (TTMCs) where commuters, instead of travelling all the way in their cars and two-wheelers to their destinations, could drive in and park before taking take a bus to the destination of their choice.

Not just that, the TTMCs had also recreation facilities where commuters could eat in restaurants and shop in in-house malls and even catch a film at the multiplexes that were to come up there.

To help BMTC

The Government is already eyeing the space for some of its offices. At the recently opened Jayanagar TTMC, citing economic slowdown, government officials said that few private entrepreneurs and traders will be interested in setting up shops in these centres.

“The retail sector is yet to recover from the economic slowdown while chances of information technology companies occupying these centres are remote. If one government office moves into these centres, they will attract people and other business will soon follow,” said M.K. Shankaralinge Gowda, Secretary to Government (Transport Department).

Mr. Gowda told The Hindu that his department is shifting the regional transport office (South) from the BBMP shopping complex to the Jayanagar transit centre shortly. There are similar moves to shift government offices to the Shanthinagar centre. The carrot the government is dangling before the BMTC is the promise of steady revenues.

Commercial viability

A senior transport corporation official, however, differed. He said letting out commercial space for business activities was to strengthen the commercial viability of the corporation.

Former BMTC Managing Director Upendra Tripathy had said that eventually the transport corporation should be able to survive with revenue from these centres and as a result, would not feel the need to hike bus fares.

“If we accommodate government offices at the transit centres, the very purpose of constructing them will get defeated,” said a BMTC official.

The transport corporation thought up the transit centres four years ago to arrest the increasing number of private vehicles on the city’s roads. Mr. Tripathy was the brain behind this concept and was successful in getting financial assistance under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.

Lower rent

The official said the offset (minimum) price for the Jayanagar transit centre was Rs. 50 per sq ft a month. While the government departments will pay only the minimum, BMTC could get more rent through open bidding, he said.

As per the government plan, one floor measuring 16,000 sq ft will be rented out to the RTO while 4,000 sq ft in the second floor will be let out to the commercial taxes department. Only 8,000 sq ft has remained for letting out to private traders and companies, he said.

At the Shanthinagar transit centre, the BMTC will have a big commercial space available once work on it is completed. The Revenue Department and Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. are housed at the BMTC terminal.

The Transport Commissioner’s office is to be shifted here while the Police and Revenue departments are also clamouring for space there. The facility will have four towers offering over eight lakh sq ft commercial area, the official said.

Source: The Hindu

I think TTMC is more suited for Bangalore One, Postal and other service centers than government offices.

[DELPIERO]

AND THE PHOTOS???

[Krishnamoorthy K]

Originally Posted by jjain

http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/re...njured_1310024

They have heard?

Road safety and trauma care are going to get a lot of emphasis in the coming year. Nimhans, along with Bruhat Bangalore Mahangara Palike (BBMP), Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), government hospitals and Traffic Police will conduct a series of year-long training programme on road safety, accident prevention and trauma care from January 2010 under Bangalore Road Safety and Injury Surveillance Programme.

Transport Commissioner Bhaskar Rao will conduct a training specifically for KSRTC and BMTC drivers involved in accidents.

Meditation classes

“I am already in talks with Nimhans and organisations that conduct meditation classes in Kannada. The workshop will be conducted for 50 drivers each from KSRTC and BMTC. It will be held in two parts - city and inter-city drivers,” Rao said.

In the absence of post-accident trauma counselling for drivers in India, the workshop aims to understand drivers’ the stress levels, elicit their expectations from the organisation and feelings about the accident.

The first workshop will be held within February 2010, he revealed.
Meanwhile, Nimhans has already carried out training sessions for 40 Bruhat Bangalore Mahangara Palike engineers and 28 casualty officers in Victoria Hospital, this week.

A first

“This is the first time something like this is happening. We wanted to sensitise the engineers while designing a road, as they would think from the engineering point of view,” said Dr Govindaraju, BBMP Joint Commissioner (Health).

While the initial session focused on designing safe roads for pedestrians and road users, another session will be conducted in January.

Praveen Sood, Additional Commissioner of Traffic, said that Road Traffic Accident (RTAs) was one of the components of the training session that was held three times a weeks involving three batches of 50 policemen each.

“The component will mainly focus on how to record the information on the accident while registering it, finding reasons for the accident, etc that would help the investigation. The second thrust area would be on handling the injured to prevent further trauma,” he informed.

“There is a need to upgrade facilities across the board. However, the primary goal should be to ensure that road accidents do not happen,” said Dr G Gururaj, Professor and Head of Epidemiology Department, Nimhans.

There is also a need for a central co-ordinating lead authority that would focus on road traffic accidents and coordinates with various departments, he felt.

Source: DHNS

KSRTC/BMTC bus drivers are getting trained. Who will train auto, car, two wheeler riders?

[engineer.akash]

Originally Posted by Krishnamoorthy K

They have heard?



Source: DHNS

KSRTC/BMTC bus drivers are getting trained. Who will train auto, car, two wheeler riders?

Auto wallahs are the worst.........experts in taking sudden U turn

next come the two wheelers who love zig-zag'ing

Car drivers think they own the city..........so speeding is their passion never stick to lanes.

Namma bengaluru hantha jannaake bala channa udarahanae

[Krishnamoorthy K]

The public transport sector led by the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) too contributed to the growth of the Transport sector, by adding more buses to their fleet and announcing massive bus station/terminal infrastructure plans.

While, the KSRTC introduced new models such as the Mercedes Benz in the premium segment and the Ambaari in the sleeper segment, the BMTC augmented its strength by utilising funds drawn from the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and introduced more Volvo buses in the City.

Another service that caught the fancy of commuters was the introduction of the eye-catching green colour ‘Big-10’ buses by BMTC to connect various parts of the City, to the Central Business District (CBD). However, another service, also introduced simultaniously in early 2009, ‘Kendra Sarige’ Volvo buses turned out to be cropper, failing to attract the upwardly mobile of the City and was merged with the Vajra Volvo fleet . BMTC also introduced the ‘Atal Sarige’ brand of buses to cater to economically backward sections of society. Named after the former prime minister, this was labelled as a populist measure of the ruling BJP government.

Infrastructure at bus stations also received a boost, with the inauguration of the BMTC Traffic and Transit Management Centre (TTMC) at Jayanagar 4th Block, in September. This is part of an ambitious plan under the JNNURM to upgrade and rebrand existing bus stations and make travel by public transport more feasible.

An unique feature of TTMC’s is a ‘Park and Ride’ facility for commuters and commercial space, that is expected to generate commercial revenue for BMTC.

Work on construction of nine more TTMC’s viz - Banashankari, Vijayanagara, Koramangala, Shanthinagar, ITPL (Whitefield), Bannerghatta, Kengeri, Yeshwantpur and Domlur are underway and would be completed by late 2010. The total cost of construction of these TTMCs is Rs 333 crore while Rs 166 crore has been released under the JNNURM scheme for the project. BMTC also proposes to construct 35 more TTMC’s under a public-private-partnership (PPP) model in phase-2 of its infrastructure improvement initiative.

Not to be left behind, the KSRTC too has embarked on a slew of projects in 2009. Among these, is the construction of an Inter Modal Transit Centre (IMTC) at Majestic, that aims to link bus connectivity to the Bangalore Metro project. Development of this project is expected to begin in early 2010.

Other projects that will see development next year are Satellite Bus Terminals at NGEF, Peenya and Hosur Road. These are envisaged to ease congestion at the Kempegowda Bus Station in Majestic.

Source: DHNS

[nandan_ks]

[vignu]

Originally Posted by Krishnamoorthy K

Source: DHNS

B'Lore is the only city that is taking Bus Transport really serious. Hats off BMTC>

[venkatm]

BMTC is also the only one who maintains their fleet well. Even 2004 buses looks clean. Hats off!

[Krishnamoorthy K]

BANGALORE: Transport Minister R Ashok on Tuesday said that for every 5 km in the city, a BMTC bus stand would be constructed for better connectivity.

Inaugurating BMTC’s new Bande Maramma bus stand at Nagarabhavi IX Block, Ashok said that building a bus stand every five km in Bangalore was in the pipeline.

The minister said that besides construction of 10 new bus stands that are nearing completion in various parts of Bangalore, 10 new bus stands will be built in Jayanagar, Indiranagar and Padmanabhanagar under the PPP (private public partnership) model, which has been approved in the board meeting recently.

Ashok announced that Rs 52 lakh would be released for concrete flooring for the newly-inaugurated bus stand and directed the officials concerned to release the funds within 15 days.

On the partial shifting of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation bus terminal in various stages at Majestic for the ongoing Namma Metro rail work, he said the industry ministry has approved to provide 10-acre land belonging to the Government Soap Factory on Dr Rajkumar Road at Yeshwanthpur for KSRTC to operate few of its services as Metro work will go on for threeand- a-half years in Majestic.

Ashok flagged off two new buses and thanked the Nagarabhavi Residents’ Welfare Associations, who were instrumental in the construction of the newly-inaugurated bus stand as the space was being eyed by land sharks.

New bus shelter at Nagarbhavi

The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation’s (BMTC) new Bande Maramma bus stand in Nagarabhavi IX Block was inaugurated here on Tuesday by Transport Minister R Ashok.

BMTC MD Syed Zameer Pasha said that new small bus stands were being built at various locations in the city from the transport corporation with providing all the basic facilities in the bus stands as well.

He informed that the new Bande Maramma bus stand was constructed at a cost of Rs 35 lakh and houses a traffic control room, bus pass distribution counter, drinking water and toilet facilities and a hotel and commercial shops.Buses will ply to the Kempegowda Bus Terminal, KR Market, Shivajinagar, Yeshwanthpur and Jayanagar IX Block routes from the new bus stand.

Source: EB

What are the plans for Bus Stops near Metro stations? Metro travellers prefer Volvo buses?

[Anshul]

Originally Posted by vignu

B'Lore is the only city that is taking Bus Transport really serious. Hats off BMTC>

noope, i guess b'lore isn't the only city! ahmedabad is making giant strides in bus transportation and so is Delhi. one should look at the extent to which Delhi is improving it. despite of the fact that other modes exist, the way not only new buses and routes are introduced, but also the BRTS and other innovative measures have been worked out deserve applause.
Ahemdabad BRTS is also the best BRTS in India!! check out the pics on SSCi.

[idontspam]

I agree, Bangalore has done nothing other than buy more buses and build more TTMC's. Nothing new in routing has been implemented. No BRTS, No priority lanes, No improvement in punctuality or reach. It doesnt even have a properly published bus timetable.

[engineer.akash]

delete

[sudheeshnairs]

Ya, no BRTS or no priority lanes, but Bangalore is light years ahead of other Indian cities when it comes to the quality, modernity and appearance of the City bus fleet.

The sheer no of VOLVOs speaks for it.

Originally Posted by idontspam

I agree, Bangalore has done nothing other than buy more buses and build more TTMC's. Nothing new in routing has been implemented. No BRTS, No priority lanes, No improvement in punctuality or reach. It doesnt even have a properly published bus timetable.

[engineer.akash]

Originally Posted by sudheeshnairs

Ya, no BRTS or no priority lanes, but Bangalore is light years ahead of other Indian cities when it comes to the quality, modernity and appearance of the City bus fleet.

The sheer no of VOLVOs speaks for it.

+1,but according to me Mysore fleet can challenge Bangalore atleast in total modernity,quality.

Though I know it would be naive to compare small division like MTCD with BMTC......

[rsrikanth05]

Originally Posted by dineshpkm

All Tamilnadu buses via Hosur will be diverted to Shanthi nagar?

They'll start frm Shantinagar.

Also, Mysore buses are being planned on the lines of BMTC right?
Why doesn't the KRSTC split Mysore like the BMTC?
Maharashtra has separate Corps for each city. BEST, NMMT, PMPML etc..

Also, the Jayanagar TTMC is pointless. Causes Traffic Jams, and doesn't let us cross the Road out there. No shops inside it, nothing doing. Sucks big time. Not even a Pass counter.. We still have to go to Sanjay Gandhi Hosp. for those...

[engineer.akash]

Originally Posted by rsrikanth05

They'll start frm Shantinagar.

Also, Mysore buses are being planned on the lines of BMTC right?
Why doesn't the KRSTC split Mysore like the BMTC?

Mysore has its own flavour it is not being planned on the lines of BMTC it has its own needs and is being planned accordingly........

Would splitting help in any way???But I find MCTD written on some buses in Mysore.I don't know what actually that is.Can make a guess to say "Mysore city transport division"

[rsrikanth05]

Originally Posted by maddyvoldy

Sorry for the pretty poor shots, the view was blocked by those sheets. I did ask for permission to take pics from clear view near the gate of depot where construction is going on but the security denied it





any pics of the completed jaynagar TTMC?

I'll get a few pics soon.
You don't need any permission. The building is public property, and you're standing on a road, again public property. Unless it is protected by the National Secrets Act of 1962, you can shoot pics of it...

Also, they've removed the FOB from Jayanagar..

Originally Posted by engineer.akash

Mysore has its own flavour it is not being planned on the lines of BMTC it has its own needs and is being planned accordingly........



Would splitting help in any way???But I find MCTD written on some buses in Mysore.I don't know what actually that is.Can make a guess to say "Mysore city transport division"

Oh.. I see..
Splitting it would reduce the load on KSRTC, and giving Mysore complete control over it's section would mean... You get the point right. Localisation types...
But let's not get into tht. This is about the BMTC and buses in Bengaluru only...

Originally Posted by vignu

B'Lore is the only city that is taking Bus Transport really serious. Hats off BMTC>

Not really. Others take it seriously too. Mumbai does. So does Chennai..

Originally Posted by venkatm

BMTC is also the only one who maintains their fleet well. Even 2004 buses looks clean. Hats off!

I beg to differ. BMTC's brand new Volvos and MarcoPolos are already in bad shape. Compared with the BESTs 5yr old Bus, which still looks brand new..