Bengaluru: Struggling to tide over huge losses, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) recently withdrew some of its Metro feeder buses following poor response. These services failed to generate income, BMTC officials said.
There are 173 Metro feeder buses operating currently from different parts of the city after many of its buses in night service were cancelled recently. This triggered city corporators to take up the issue at a recent council meeting and they demanded that the BMTC increase the Metro feeder bus service to help commuters.
The feeder bus services that were discontinued were from South Bengaluru. A BMTC official said that these buses were not generating even Rs 10 per km. “Though our motto is continuous service to the public, we can’t run buses at such huge losses all the time. Metro feeder services are already under loss.
We have increased the frequency where there is a demand and decreased in places where it is less,” a senior official from BMTC said.
The BBMP has been demanding that the Metro run its services 24/7 and also the Metro feeder continue for 24 hours. The Palike said this is to help those going for night duty and also those attending late night parties. “There was a time when BMTC was operating 6,000 buses for 100 corporation wards. But now the wards have been extended to 198, but the BMTC bus count has not increased,” said Mayor R. Sampath Raj.
BMTC sources revealed that earlier, about 197 feeder bus services were introduced from four directions of Metro services and were plying around 3,000 trips. Some feeder bus services from Vijayanagar,
Magadi Road, Banashankari, Jayanagar and RV Road have been withdrawn and diverted to other routes.
“We cannot act on the demand of corporators because we know what the present situation of BMTC is. Most of our regular routes are under loss. Introduction or withdrawal of such service is not new for BMTC. Earlier too, there were instances of feeder services being reintroduced after withdrawal for some months. Everyone will demand the service, but no one will come forward to bear the losses. In other Metropolitan cities, the corporation supports such feeder bus services. We also expect a similar arrangement and will look into the issue and take action in the next few days,” the BMTC official said.
