BENGALURU: The direct subsidy of Rs 100 crore offered by the state government to the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation in the budget on Thursday will go some distance towards reducing the Rs 350 crore annual loss incurred by it. The new buses announced in the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 budgets will be inducted this year along with 80 electric buses.
According to a top official, the BMTC will get 1,625 buses, 801 buses will go to the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, the North East Karnataka Road Transport Corporation will get 1,160 buses and the North West Karnataka road Transport Corporation will get 650 buses.
BMTC Managing Director V Ponnuraj said that these were part of the 3,000 buses announced for BMTC in the previous two budgets. “Already, 1,500 buses have begun operations. The remaining 1,500 will be inducted during this financial year,” he said. Tenders for procuring 80 electric buses have already been awarded to the Hyderabad-based Gold Coast, another official said.
No announcement on suburban rail funding
While the formation of the Special Purpose Vehicle is still on for the dedicated 142-km suburban rail network for the city, there has been no announcement in the budget for the project. A sum of Rs 100 crore had been earmarked by Karnataka for it in the 2016-2017 state budget. It is said to cost Rs 17,000 crore, with the State and Centre funding it equally and the remaining amount will be mobilised by the SPV.