BMTC targets 60 pc of all journeys by 2007

BMTC targets 60 pc of all journeys by 2007
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) which is adding 1,000 buses to its existing fleet in phases and introducing the direction- oriented Grid system to improve connectivity, has set a target of capturing 60 percent share of all journeys in the city by 2007.

About 50 percent of the city’s commuter population travels by BMTC buses at present.It is estimated that for achieving the target, BMTC will need to increase ridership and capacity by approximately 15 percent every year compared to 10 percent currently. BMTC is currently adding to its fleet at the rate of almost 200 buses a month.

Once new buses are added, BMTC’s current 3,500 schedules are also expected to increase along with the number of passenger traffic and service kilometres a day.

BMTC also plans to introduce the direction-oriented Grid System of connectivity wherein buses which now operate on a destination-oriented system, will ply on 27 criss-crossing trunk routes that connect the extreme points in the city in all eight directions (North-South, East-West, Northeast-Southwest, Southeast- Northwest).

With this system, a passenger can reach any point in the city from another, with a changeover of only one bus.

BMTC hopes that with these major changes, by 2007, the ridership which is pegged at over 30 lakh passengers a day will increase by at least another 4.5 lakh passengers a day.