BENGALURU: The work from home option for multi-national company employees, mainly tech workers, has put the state-run Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) and Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) in a dilemma. While BMTC proposes to operate air-conditioned buses, which were widely used by techies during pre-Covid times, to neighbouring districts, KSRTC officials seem sceptical as they see two government organisations competing with each other for the same routes.
BMTC now operates around 7,000 buses, of which over 800 are air-conditioned, most of them Volvos. The AC buses were earlier plying mainly to tech hubs -- Whitefield and Electronics City -- and the Kempegowda International Airport. But ever since the pandemic stuck, a majority of the companies have allowed their employees to opt for the hybrid work model, where the staff has to go to office only once or twice a week. Many companies have also stopped their contract with BMTC to ferry staff. The fallout is that these AC buses now hardly see any patronage, causing BMTC to lose revenue. Last year, it slashed fares of AC buses to woo commuters, but it did not improve occupancy.
To improve earnings, BMTC has been proposing to run AC buses from Bengaluru to Kolar, Tumakuru, Ramanagara and Chikkaballapur districts. BMTC Managing Director Sathyvathi G has written to KSRTC Managing Director Anbu Kumar, seeking permission, sources said.
Before Covid, AC buses were run from different parts of the city to these companies at a monthly charge of Rs 6,000. Apart from WFH, improving Metro connectivity and cabs too have hit the BMTC bottomline. Now, hardly any AC buses are run on these routes.
Earlier this month, BMTC started operating buses, even non-AC, to Chikkaballapur. But it was not welcomed by KSRTC. A senior KSRTC official said it is not fair to run BMTC buses on KSRTC routes. “How can two state-owned organisations compete with each other,”he asked.