BENGALURU: Have you noticed that our BMTC buses are wearing a smarter livery? Many of the older Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corportion buses are now in orange, green and blue. It is an “inspired” colour code, according to the department officials–green by the city’s gardens, orange by the spirit of joy and happiness, and blue by the sky.
The officials say the new colour scheme is meant to help citizens, because the earlier many shades – grey, yellow, orange, etc. – were confusing commuters. Therefore, BMTC decided to unify some of the lines.
The green line of buses are now services that connect central city (Ordinary, Big Trunk and Big Circle services), blue line is for air-conditioned buses and services to the airport (Vajra and Vayu Vajra) and orange for feeder services from suburban areas and metro stations. In a year and half, the BMTC will change the entire fleet without incurring “any extra cost”. They plan to change the livery to the new colour scheme when the vehicles go for their annual servicing.
BMTC did a study of transport services across the globe, including other Indian cities, before coming up with the new colour coding. They found the ideal in Seoul Bus Transport.
The South Korean service has buses in four colours – blue connects suburban areas to downtown Seoul, green run at lower speeds and connect bus terminals and subway stations outside downtown, red at higher speeds connect metropolitan area with the downtown and yellow stop at select areas like tourist spots or shopping areas. The colour coding was part of their revamp to make public transport more popular, in 2004. They also had a centralised system to easily identify bus routes, designated bus lanes and redrew routes to complement their subways. In a year, bus commuters increased by 30 to 40 per cent.
BMTC too has tried to mirror these. They made bus routes easier to identify, this May, when they launched their app that listed bus routes and buses that plied on those routes. Bus lanes were planned on Old Airport Road, but that is yet to take off. Metro-feeder services too were launched in May this year, along the Purple Line that connects Byappanahalli with Mysore Road.
Bengaluru’s transport service has attempted an additional change, in naming services in Kannada and keeping names that will easily identify the type of service. For example, the Big Trunk service will now be called Samartha Saarige, Big Circle will be Samvrutha Saarige and Big 10 will be Nera Saarige. Biswajit Mishra, Director (IT) of BMTC, tells CE, “We wanted to give importance to the local language.”
Branding expert Harish Bijoor applauds BMTC's efforts. Though, he adds, white may’ve been better than blue. “Then it can stand for the National Flag,” he says, “saffron, green and white.” Also white conveys premium more effectively, according to him. “There will be frequent cleaning of buses, to keep it white,” he says.
Do you like BMTC's new look? Write to bengalurucityexpress@gmail.com