Commuters using premium bus services of the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) will have to wait a while longer for the 100 new buses that were promised in last year’s State Budget.
The BMTC recently decided to cancel an order for these buses after it was found during a trial run of one bus that its fuel consumption was higher than the average of the buses currently in service.“The board has made a decision to cancel the order for 100 Volvo buses and it is final. New tenders will now be called for to find a suitable replacement,” said Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy.
The buses had been announced as part of the interest subvention offered by the State government to procure 1,000 buses in the 2016-17 budget. They were promised as a measure to reduce traffic congestion in areas such as Whitefield.
In March this year, Volvo India, which was shortlisted to supply the buses, announced that the 100 buses would be of the 8400 city bus model with an indigenously made 8-litre engine. The buses, compliant with Bharat Standard IV norms, had features such as 350-mm ground clearance and body-lowering mechanism for easy access to passengers with impaired mobility.
As part of the deal, the BMTC ran a trial of one of these buses for a few months. Officials said the fuel consumption per kilometre, when compared to other buses being operated by the utility, was much higher. “We ran these buses on the airport route and on another route. The kmpl figures were higher. When these figures were presented to the board of directors, a decision to cancel the order was made,” a BMTC official said.
At present, the corporation has around 700 Volvo buses. Its fleet strength continues to be the lowest in the past five years, with only 6,215 buses operational. The figure was 6,431 in 2012-13, but some old buses were scrapped subsequently.
However, the situation is expected to improve in the coming year with plans afoot to add at least 3,000 buses by 2018. This year, 197 buses had joined the fleet till May 2017.
Volvo India did not respond to emails sent by The Hindu on the scrapping of the order by the BMTC.
