Women conductors, vehicle tracking, speed governors to take your kid to school: BMTC

Bengaluru: Of the 3,000 buses announced in this year's budget, BMTC plans to allocate 500-1,000 buses to ferry schoolchildren. To attract educational institutions, chartered services with safety features will be added.

“We currently earn Rs 8.5-9 crore per year, from 868 chartered and 226 dedicated services. We hope to increase the fleet with women conductors, speed lock devices and live tracking available for the parents through GPS and mobile app," said BMTC Managing Director Ekroop Caur.

CCTV cameras, fire extinguishers, senior drivers and, importantly, concessional rates for students' transportation to and from schools and colleges will be the features of these buses.

“The bus will drop students at school and back home. In between, it will function as a regular BMTC bus with a scheduled route. The services dedicated to schools and colleges will bring down traffic on the road. 31, 42 and 50-seater non-AC buses are available for institutions,” Caur said.

While the chartered services run on rate per kilometre, the dedicated services use special passes catering to a specific factory or company. The service picks up only company staff from their homes and drops them to the workplace, an official said.

Hi-tech facilities
The National Urban Transport Policy includes Urban Bus Specifications (UBS)-II, under which BMTC has received funds from the JNNURM scheme.
300 buses added
Fancy green and orange BMTC Suvarna buses, wearing a brand new look, have hit the streets of late. The BMTC has added 300 of these new buses over the last one month. Ms Caur said that this is part of the 1,500 buses pending from the last year's budget.

• Rear-view camera for the driver, foldable ramp for the disabled, and a special seat at the centre of the bus for the disabled to attach and lock their wheelchair.
• LED touch screen near the driver displays vehicle information and speed lock.
• Stop requests on four horizontal stanchion pipes can be used by passengers to alert the driver and get down at their desired destination.
• CCTV camera, voice announcement, integrated with the Intelligent Transport System facilities.

Chartered rates

• Rs 32 per km for 31-seater buses, Rs 35 per km for 42-seaters to schools and colleges.
• Rs 40 per km for 50-seater buses to schools and Rs 42 per km for the same buses to colleges.