Eye on Bengaluru ahead of Karnataka polls: Bus service hits bump, BMTC struggles with dwindling fleet

According to mobility experts, there should be at least 120 buses per 100,000 population for better bus services. Ideally, Bengaluru should have about 14,000 buses. A city that once boasted of one of the finest quality bus services in India has been crumbling over the past decade.

Unlike Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, Bengaluru does not have a dedicated suburban rail system for intra-city trips, forcing passengers to rely on its road network for city transit.

Easing congestion

Given that projects like the metro and suburban rail take time to build and operate, experts said the easiest way to reduce traffic congestion is to add buses.

“Irrespective of which party comes to power, BMTC needs financial support from the state government to increase its bus numbers. There is also a need to recruit more drivers – right now there's a hiring freeze,” said Vinay Sreenivasa, a member of Bengaluru Bus Prayanikara Vedike, an NGO that campaigns for better public transport. “Most of the time, buses are stuck in traffic because of the volume of two-wheelers and cars in the city. There should be a plan to restrict private vehicles and encourage public transport.”

The state’s Comprehensive Mobility Plan proposed to increase the BMTC’s fleet to 13,000 buses in 2025 and 16,582 in 2031. However, it is unlikely to meet the target, going by the slow-pace of fleet expansion.

Experts said BMTC’s major advantage is that buses can change routes in real time based on passenger demand, unlike the metro and suburban rail, which run on fixed routes.

Idle buses

Many of the Volvo buses that were once heavily patronised by techies on IT corridors are now lying idle due to higher diesel prices and a crew shortage. Of the 6,767 buses, BMTC officials said, they are operating only 5,568 buses. The major concern is the shortage of staff.

“The last regular recruitment was in 2018. Since then, many drivers and conductors opted for inter-corporation transfers and have gone to their native places, many retired, some died due to Covid-19 and others were dismissed for participating in the transport strike in 2021,” said a BMTC official.

He said an additional 2,000 staff are needed to operate all buses.

“We recently floated a tender to hire 1,000 drivers on contract basis, but nothing has been finalised yet. The state government has not given us the go-ahead for fresh permanent recruitments yet,” he said.

BMTC officials said recruitments were frozen following a report by the state government-appointed one-man committee of former IAS officer MR Srinivasamurthy.

“My suggestion to the government was to increase the induction of electric buses and save on fuel costs,” Srinivasamurthy told Moneycontrol. “Not recruiting people was not the point, but they should see how to improve the services with existing staff. I had recommended running more services with minimum staff.”

Drop in ridership

There has been a drastic drop in daily ridership and bus utilisation. Ridership has fallen to 3 million from 5.1 million in FY15, BMTC records show. The reasons include expansion of Namma Metro network, entry of app-based cabs, work-from-home arrangement etc. Some shifted due to Covid-19 scare and also due to the poor frequency of buses.

The distance covered by each bus every day has declined due to rising traffic congestion, which makes it difficult for buses to complete trips. The average vehicle utilisation was 171 km in FY22 compared with 218.2 km in FY14. Fleet utilisation dropped to 58.6 percent in FY22 from 91.2 percent in FY14.

The Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) proposed measures such as dedicated bus lanes/priority corridors for public transport buses to improve average bus speed from current 10-15 kmph to 20-25 kmph. It also identified 11 high-density corridors for bus priority lanes but the plan remains on paper.

“BMTC is heading into a spiral where congestion will reduce the attractiveness of the bus company, which in turn would only serve to favour more private modes and increase congestion,” the CMP stated.

In 2019, a bus priority lane was started between Central Silk Board and KR Puram on Outer Ring Road but it was dismantled due to the metro construction.

"BMTC must double their fleet and reduce fares. They should also improve reliability, speed and affordability by introducing buses and bus lanes on all high-density corridors,” said Srinivas Alavilli, a fellow at WRI India, an NGO. “All parties must stop paying lip service to public transport. They should realise that investing in buses will get immediate results."

He said there should be smaller buses for last-mile connectivity.

"There is no such thing as a profitable public transit but public health can be improved by investing in buses. BMTC should also open up data so more firms/individuals come up with innovative solutions,” he said.

Free rides

In the FY24 state budget, Chief minister Basavaraj Bommai announced a free bus pass facility for 3 million working women in the organised sector and allocated Rs 1,000 crore for this purpose. Though the scheme was supposed to come into effect from April 1, it hasn’t taken off. Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Delhi provide free bus rides for all women passengers.

On International Women's Day on March 8, BMTC's free bus rides for women passengers were met with an overwhelming response.

"Karnataka's free bus pass scheme is a flawed one. The government didn't announce free passes for all women and they announced only for organised workers,” said Tara Krishnaswamy, cofounder of Political Shakti and Citizens for Bengaluru. “To get a bus pass, one has to take a day off from work, wait in line for a new pass or renew a pass and provide an ID. Instead of that, they can make it for free for all women.”

She said the total burden on the exchequer is also less.

"Firstly, they implement free bus schemes only in urban areas like Bengaluru. Public transport cannot be a profitable service. It has to be viewed from a public health and environmental perspective. For domestic workers, the free bus scheme is beneficial since they can save money and use it for other needs."

In 2016, BMTC was the first in the country to offer smart cards for cashless travel and introduce an Intelligent Transport System so that passengers could track buses. While the smart card became defunct in a few weeks, passengers have not been able to track buses since 2021 when the contract expired.

A plan to set up Passenger Information System boards at bus shelters is yet to take off so there is no way for passengers to know when their buses will arrive.

A recent Asian Development Bank (ADB) report titled, ‘Framework for Integrated Metro and Bus Services and Financial Planning Strategies for the BMTC,’ suggested measures to rejuvenate the cash-strapped corporation. Chief among them is the need for BMTC to tailor its services.

“BMTC service schedules are designed in such a way that services peak by 6 pm and drop sharply after that. At the same time, Bengaluru Metro's demand patterns show that the evening peak lasts until 8 pm. Therefore, the BMTC needs to adjust its service schedules such that the evening peak extends at least up to 8pm," it said.

The network has to be reoriented to create more supply in the emerging eastern and southern demand centres of Bengaluru, it said.

“The network predominantly provides radial services centred around Majestic, KR Market and Shivaji Nagar bus stations,” it said.

Only 112 of the 2,203 BMTC routes have more than 10 buses per route. At the same time, 1,500 routes have only one bus assigned to it, severely restricting the ability to provide high-frequency services, ADB said. About 64 percent of bus users travel less than 5 km and would prefer shorter routes with higher frequency and reliable services.

Funding mechanism

“About 50 percent of the BMTC routes are longer than 25 km, which would take them through several congestion points within the city and, therefore, impact their service reliability," the ADB report said.

Ravi Gadepalli, one of the authors of the report, said there should be a performance-linked funding mechanism from the state government.

“Once BMTC meets the key performance indicators like daily kilometres, ridership, occupancy revenue, it should be eligible for assured funding from the state government," he said.

BMTC director (information technology) Surya Sen told Moneycontrol that 1,000 drivers are being hired on contract and five AC electric double-decker buses are being added.

“This was delayed due to the election model code of conduct,” he said.

According to Sen, the one-man committee report suggested doing away with bus conductors.

“We will require around Rs 50 crore to implement automatic fare collection. We are planning to make AC buses conductor-less soon to cut down on operational costs. We need money for this,” he said.

A mobile app (Nimmbus) will be launched on Google Play Store in a few days. To accept Namma Metro’s National Common Mobility Card, the corporation will need to onboard a bank. BMTC has also sought subsidies from the state government, he added.

BMTC managing director G Sathyavathi was unavailable for comment.

Note to readers: This is the fifth article in a series on Bengaluru ahead of Karnataka polls on May 10

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