Blame it on the breakdown

In the narrow roads of Bengaluru and in the choked main roads, it takes just one malfunction to throw traffic out of gear. As most commuters will testify, it is usually a breakdown of a BMTC bus that leads to piling up of vehicles.

On April 15, for instance, breakdowns in front of the busy Halasuru Gate Police station and Varthur Main Road (which leads to Whitefield) had led to massive disruptions. In the preceding days, buses had stalled at the Graphite Industry Junction (Whitefield), Silk Board junction, near Hebbal on Outer Ring Road, among other places.

The frequency of breakdowns led one Twitter user to comment on Saturday, when buses remained off the street for most of the day owing to the bandh: “Probably the only day you won't hear about a BMTC bus breakdown on the road.”

However, a senior BMTC official said though breakdowns have reduced, the problem compounds the fragile traffic situation of the city.

“This year, we have had 0.06 breakdowns per 10,000 km travelled by the buses. This is lower than the 0.07 ratio registered last year,” said C.G. Anand, General Manager (Tech), BMTC.

He said 600 ‘aged’ buses were scrapped since last year while 194 new buses have been added to the fleet. Apart from this, four new depots have been added, leading to “lesser workload” on mechanics. “There are limitations. Slow-moving traffic results in frequent failure of clutches and brakes, and over-heating of engines,” said Mr. Anand.