Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation

Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation, officially Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), is a state-owned public road transport corporation in the Indian city of Bangalore. It is wholly owned by the Government of Karnataka. It serves the Bangalore Metropolitan Region. As of August 2022, it has a fleet of 6798 buses.

History

Foundation

Mysore Government Road Transport Department was inaugurated on 12 September 1948 with 120 buses. The transport department of The Mysore state administered it until 1961.

Corporatization

It was subsequently converted into an independent corporation under Section 3 of the Road Transport Corporation Act, 1950 on 1 August 1961, In 1961, after successfully converting into an independent corporation all assets and liabilities of MGRTD were transferred to Mysore State Road Transport Corporation.

Merger

On 1 October 1961, Bangalore Transport Service was merged with it.

Renaming

On 1 November 1973, the Mysore state was renamed as Karnataka thus, renaming it Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation.

Bifurcation

• On 15 August 1997, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (then Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation) was bifurcated to cater to the transportation needs of Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority. It was formed by separating the Bangalore Transport Service.
• on 1 November 1997, North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation was bifurcated to cater to the transportation needs of Northwestern parts of Karnataka.
• On 15 August 2000, Kalyana Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (then North Eastern Karnataka Road Transport Corporation) was bifurcated to cater to the transportation needs of Northeastern parts of Karnataka.

This left the corporation to serve the Southern part of Karnataka.

• On 23 November 2009, Vijayapura division was transferred from NWKRTC to KKRTC.
• On 1 November 2014, It changed to the present name Bangalore Metropolitain Transport Corporation along with other organisations in the city.

Services

Former services

• Parisara Vahini/Parisara Snehi: It is a non-AC bus service with a light blue-white, dark blue, blue-white or grey colour livery over time. Merged with Bengaluru Sarige.
• Janti Vahana: It is a non-AC vestibule bus service with a light blue-white or blue-white colour livery over time. Currently defunct.
• Suvarna: It is a non-AC bus service with a green or red livery, similar fare to Jana Sarige buses served important feeder routes. Merged with Bengaluru Sarige.
• Samartha/BIG Trunk: It is a non-AC bus service with a green livery used to serve trunk routes from downtown to the suburbs. Merged with Bengaluru Sarige.
• Nera Sarige/BIG 10: It is a non-AC bus service with a special green and bottle green livery plied on 12 major corridors towards the central business district. These buses are numbered with a G prefix. Merged with Bengaluru Sarige.
• Samvrutha/BIG Circle: It is a non-AC bus service with a special white BIG Circle livery. These buses use to ply on Bangalore Inner Ring Road and Bangalore Outer Ring Road. Buses are numbered with a C prefix or a K prefix. Merged with Bengaluru Sarige.
• Atal Sarige: It is a non-AC Low fare bus service with an Indian tri-colour livery. Currently defunct
• Pushpak Sarige/Janapriya Vahini: non-AC buses with a beige-white livery used to ply only with a driver who also issues ticket and has only one entrance and exit. Currently defunct.
• Marcopolo AC, UD AC and Corona AC: It is an AC low fare bus service with a white or light blue livery plied on select routes. Currently defunct.
• Nimbus: It is a non-AC bus service with a green livery for BSIV, light blue-white livery for BSVI and AC buses with a light blue livery. These buses ply on special bus rapid transit lanes. The only service between Central Silk Board Junction and Krishnarajapura was temporarily withdrawn and converted to Bengaluru Sarige service as the bus lane had to be closed down due to a decrease in width of Bangalore Outer Ring Road for the construction of Namma Metro blue line.
• Samparka: It is a mini non-AC bus service built on Ashok Leyland and Tata mini urban chassis with an orange livery connecting neighbourhoods to the nearby bus station. Usually covering shorter distances. Merged with Bengaluru Sarige.

Note: The Parisara Vahini/Parisara Snehi, Suvarna Sarige, Samartha Sarige/BIG Trunk, Nera Sarige/BIG 10, Samvrutha Sarige/BIG Circle, Metro Feeder, Nimbus and Samparka still retain the same numbering and function despite the change in branding.

List of depots

National Common Mobility Card (NCMC)

BMTC unveiled a smart card for its bus services for the first time in June 2016. The company introduced smart cards on trial-basis on BMTC Bus No. 335 operating between Majestic and Kadugodi bus stations in March 2017. Apart from serving as an identification document, the smart cards can be used to purchase bus tickets and also swiped at point-of-sale (POS) enabled merchant establishments. The card costs ₹5 (6.0¢ US) and can be recharged for up to ₹10,000 (US$120). Recharges higher than ₹10,000 require the customer to provide identification. According to Axis Bank, the BMTC's partner in the project, the smart card is India's "first open loop EMV contactless smart card". The cards "open-loop" structure allows other agencies to integrate their smart card schemes by adopting the standards of the BMTC smart card. This scheme was finally dropped and integration with National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) is already under process. City's Namma Metro is already using NCMC and Bengaluru Suburban Railway will also be using it in future when the system is completed so therefore, one will be used to travel seamlessly across different transit modes in the city and its suburbs.

Bus Day

Introduced on 4 February 2010, Bus Day is an event calling all the citizens of Bangalore to use public transport. The idea behind Bus Day is to observe the changes which can be brought in the city in trying to respect environment, traffic situation, health of individuals perception. The 4th of every month is observed as a "Bus Day".

Bus priority lane

BMTC along with BTP initiated the bus lanes between Central Silk Board Junction and Tin Factory Junction on Outer Ring Road branded as Nimbus. Bus lanes give priority to buses, cutting down on journey times where roads are congested with other traffic especially private cars and increasing the reliability of buses. The introduction of bus lanes can significantly assist in the reduction of air pollution due to individual cars and traffic pile up because of cars. Currently, the bus lane has been removed due to reduction in road width due to the ongoing work on Namma Metro's Blue Line on the median.

Technologies

To benefit the commuters and promote the usage of public transportation, the BMTC launched its Intelligent Transport System (ITS) on 25 May 2016. Under this project, BMTC buses were equipped with GPS in a phased manner which would transmit the location of the bus to the ITS control room. On 20 May 2023, A mobile app called Namma BMTC was launched on the android and iOS platform which was made available in two languages, English and Kannada. The app provides information about bus routes and bus stops. Real time location of buses on a particular route can also be tracked, which requires the users to switch on the GPS on their device. In 2017, BMTC would be introduced prepaid smart cards for commuting, which eliminated the need to pay the exact amount of change, this was not introduced widely, instead NCMC cards are proposed to be released as an open loop payment system. On 6 April 2022, Bus Passes started to be issued on TUMMOC mobile app, passengers have to scan the QR code in the bus to verify the pass bought on the app. In 2022, BMTC has also started to accept ticket payments using UPI in a ON and OFF manner, finally launching it properly in June 2023. A QR code card is either stuck in the bus or with the bus conductor, passengers can scan and pay for tickets.

An app named "Namma BMTC" launched in 2023 that allows users to track buses in real time, check schedules, plan journeys and calculate fare between stages. The app also includes an SOS feature for women to use in case of emergencies by alerting any nearby police station.

Karnataka's Road Transport Undertakings

• KSRTC, Bangalore: Operates out of Southern Karnataka.
• NWKRTC, Hubli: Operates out of North-Western Karnataka except Bijapur district.
• KKRTC, Kalaburagi: Operates out of North-Eastern Karnataka and Bijapur district.
• BMTC, Bangalore: Operates in Bangalore Metropolitan Region offering transit service.

See also

• List of bus depots in Karnataka
• List of bus stations in Karnataka

References

External links

• Official website