BENGALURU: Volunteers of Bengaluru Bus Prayanikara Vedike (BBPV) formed a human chain at Kempegowda Bus Stand here on Saturday and urged Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to increase the budget to Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC).
Holding placards, the volunteers requested the CM to make the city transport affordable and allocate Rs 1,500 crore to BMTC to make travel free for women and the transgender community, senior citizens and students.
The volunteers said that Bengaluru has the highest bus fare in the country making it unaffordable for large sections of people. The bus ecosystem in Bengaluru currently faces many hurdles and one among them is the lack of adequate connectivity and service, they said. They said that people have to walk for 2-3 km and are made to wait for a long time to catch a bus.
“For a population that is nearly 1.3 crore, Bengaluru needs more than 15,000 buses. BMTC’s fleet is highly inadequate. The explosive growth of private vehicles has caused increased pollution, congestion, loss of greenery (trees cut down for flyovers and road widening), further worsening climate change” said Vinay Sreenivasa, Bengaluru Bus Prayanikara Vedike.
They urged that BMTC is permitted to hire additional staff, add 3,000 more buses immediately and the necessary capital and operational expenditure are allotted by the State Government and reminded that the transport corporation to make money and be self-sufficient.