BELAGAVI: The Comptroller General of India (CAG) revealed that the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has been operating outdated and ‘overaged’ buses. Nearly 25% of BMTC’s buses were classified as overaged, exceeding their stipulated lifespan as per norms.
The audit found that between 2017-18 and 2021-22, 12.60% to 29.08 % of BMTC fleet — 841 to 1,909 ordinary buses had surpassed their useful life. Among these, 341 to 823 buses had exceeded both their recommended years of service and mileage limits, it said.
CAG also found that the productivity of vehicles older than 11 years was between 80-147 km per day as against the stipulated target of 206 km per day. In the case of vehicles that had operated for more than 8.5 lakh kilometre, the productivity was only between 0.11 and 3.27 km per day.
Buses which ran for more than 8.5 lakh km and were not used for trips were also shown as part of BMTC fleet. Such vehicles accounted for 9.59 to 14.54 per cent of the fleet
The audit also noticed that the operating cost ratio of BMTC increased from 133.59 per cent in 2017-18 to 222.62 per cent in 2021-22. “Personnel Cost (60 per cent) and Fuel Costs (27 per cent) were the major components of Operating Expenditure,” it said, adding that operational revenue had not increased commensurately to offset operational expenditure. Moreover, as fare revision was not done since 2014-15, BMTC could not earn an additional revenue of Rs 649.74 crore, the report added.