Some 1,000 less polluting buses will replace the smoke-belching ones of the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) shortly and Bangalore will be the first Indian city to have these new Euro IV-compliant vehicles.
“The BMTC board recently approved the purchase of 1,000 such buses to reduce pollution. Even a city like New Delhi does not have Euro IV-compliant buses,” Transport and Home Minister R. Ashok said here after inaugurating the eighth Traffic Transit Management Centre (TTMC) in the city at Vijayanagar on Saturday.
The Rs. 58.1-crore TTMC, constructed under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme, will be named after poet-laureate Kuvempu, and a directive in this regard has been issued to the BMTC Managing Director.
Five more TTMCs have been planned in Malleswaram, Jayanagar, Katriguppe, Indiranagar and Hebbal under public-private partnership (PPP) while those at Banashankari and Yeshwanthpur will be ready in a month and a half.
Stating that the TTMCs would fetch the BMTC and Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) an annual revenue of Rs. 30 crore, Mr. Ashok said that such steps had been taken to make these transport corporations financially independent.
