BENGALURU : While empty buses may appear to be a welcome sight for commuters used to travelling in sardine-packed public vehicles, the sparsely-occupied BMTC Volvo buses plying on major roads near IT parks in the city only pose as an eyesore for many. Citizens already battling traffic chaos on the main roads in tech hubs say these buses needlessly add to the vehicle congestion.
Ajit Lakshamirathan, a resident of Kundanahalli and member of Whitefield Rising, said he sees 20-30 Volvo buses running empty, especially during leaner traffic hours. “Around 12pm, several vacant Volvo buses run by Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) travel on the Kundanahalli road. With the underpass construction going on, these buses add to the traffic. We had suggested to the divisional BMTC officers to shift these buses to other alternative routes.
However, since those routes are narrow, officers said it is not possible for the huge buses to take them due to their weight and size,” he added.According to traffic expert M N Shreehari, since BMTC has taken these buses on contract basis, it is not practical to get their routes changed. “It may not be successful as the cost would be more and people would be reluctant to shell out money,” he said.
These buses are hired specifically for IT professionals, and so the tech parks should also try to resolve the problem, say citizens. “Considering the city’s traffic situation, and since the main objective is to reduce private vehicles on the road, tech parks and BMTC should come up with an agreement to address such public issues,” Anju Dinesh, a resident of Brookefield, said.
A divisional BMTC officer denied that these buses run empty. “After dropping off employees, the buses go to Kadugodi bus stop and start their routine schedule to Majestic. In the evening, they return to the bus depot,” said the official.BMTC managing director N V Prasad, however, admitted that the Volvo buses pose a problem. “The trouble is that these buses cannot take alternative routes as they have been assigned designated routes. We can operate them as premium services where they run one trip in the morning and evening, but the timings are a problem and it is not possible at this point,” he said.
The dedicated transport service was introduced by BMTC for the employees of tech parks a few years ago in a bid to take a few thousand cars off the road. At present, 900 buses are plying, out of which 230 are Volvo buses. Many companies in major tech parks, like Manyata Tech Park, ITPL, Bagmane Tech Park, RMZ Ecospace, EMZ Ecoworld and some companies in Electronics City, have partnered with BMTC in an effort to reduce the traffic burden on the city.