BENGALURU:BMTC (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Organisation) as part of the reforms to increase public transport ridership has written to the government on declaring dedicated corridors and enforcing the parking policy stringently.
BMTC Managing Director V Ponnuraj said a ‘clear road’ will be available for public transport if government declares exclusive lanes for BMTC buses and make on-street parking as expensive as possible. BMTC’s letter to government is based on the feedback cum survey of its passengers, some of them shifting to using personal vehicles like two-wheelers or cars.
Sources in BMTC told CE that passengers were using personal vehicles mainly due to lengthy commute time and lack of last mile connectivity. A survey done recently revealed that 60 per cent of commuters were willing to pay more if they were dropped at the destination on the scheduled time. “Interestingly the survey’s findings were more or less similar to a similar exercise conducted in 2011,’’ sources said.
Is the demand for corridors exclusively for BMTC buses seem practicable in a mega city with highest number of about 70 lakh transport vehicles ?. Sources in BMTC cite ‘Taipei’ model, presented at an international conclave held in New Delhi, which has re-allocated space for buses. Sources in BMTC informed CE that traffic police were the biggest stumbling block in realising dedicated corridors for BMTC.
“The letter besides seeking dedicated corridors wherever it is feasible had urged government to convert one-way into a two-way roads exclusively for BMTC buses. The motorists and users of other personal vehicles on witnessing BMTC access one-way roads would be tempted to shift to the public transport system,’’ sources said and added that it was high time BMTC was involved in urban planning. Justifying the need to give priority to bus transport, sources said at 90 paisa per passenger/kilometer buses are still the cheapest mode of transport. While in metros the per passenger trip subsidy ranges from `50 (Jaipur) to `78 (Lucknow). “Such dedicated corridors will ease congestion, pollution, increases efficiency, productivity of drivers and prevents BMTC from running into losses,’’ sources stressed.
The reforms linked with funds in transport sector is need-of-the hour as a report by Centre for Science and Environment, submitted at the international conclave in New Delhi, had predicted a dip in the share of public transport from 75.5 per cent in 2000-01 to 44.7 per cent in 2030-31. Though the report urges governments to keep public transport services affordable for all, governments across the country have neglected bus transport.
BMTC-friendly St Mark’s Road
BMTC has declared a tendersure road, St Mark’s Road, in BBMP limits as BMTC-friendly. “Much space has been earmarked for movement of buses,’’ sources in BMTC told CE.
‘BMTC best STU in India’
“Apart from BMTC, many public transport corporations in the country are broke for decades,’’ declared Gautam Patel of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) at an international conclave in New Delhi recently. BMTC also received a pat for its best practice of fare revision. “The fare is revised when fuel price and DA crosses a threshold of 0.25 paisa per passenger, kilometre. BMTC, is the only state transport undertaking (STU) which carries 12 times more commuters than Metro. BMTC which had reduced total losses to five per cent in previous fiscal, hopes to achieve break-even in this fiscal,’’ BMTC MD
V Ponnuraj said.