BENGALURU: Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy on Wednesday said he will institute an enquiry into the purchase of Tata Marcopolo buses by Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) and Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), which are not popular among commuters. The move comes ahead of a cabinet discussion on scrapping these buses from service.
“According to calculations, if we keep using the Marcopolo buses for the rest of their lifetime, we stand to lose around `90 crore. They are causing losses of `27 for every kilometre they run,” Reddy said. These calculations are based on the cost of the bus at `35 lakh each, as well as the passenger footfall on these buses.
BMTC Managing Director Ekroop Caur said the buses were not being preferred by passengers because of the noise and the location of the engine in the rear. “The price at which they were bought was a good deal at that time. But people are not liking the bus and there are several scientific issues with it as well. Since the buses were bought with Central government assistance, we had to take their permission to scrap the services as well and they suggested we provide details about who authorised the purchases,” Caur said.
Reddy said a full inquiry will be conducted into the features in the bus as well as the decisions taken by the Technical Advisory team, which approved the purchases. “The issue will be discussed in the cabinet and we are recommending scrapping of the service,” he said.
BMTC has 98 Tata Marcopolo buses, while KSRTC has around 45 of them. Interestingly, a statement by Tata Motors in September this year said that KSRTC had placed an order for 487 buses with Tata as per ‘Urban Bus Specifications’ under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM). When asked about this, Reddy said the 487 buses were regular buses and are not the air-conditioned coaches which are facing complaints.
Tata Motors could not be immediately reached for a comment.