BMTC plans feeder service

BMTC plans feeder service
The Times of India

Bangalore: If your house is in a Jayanagar bylane and you want to go to St Mark’s Road by a city bus, chances are that you’d either take an autorickshaw or walk to the Jayanagar bus stand to take a Shivajinagar-bound bus. But a proposal of the Consumer Task Force (CTF) of the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) should make it easier for you by November 1.

According to the new feeder plan, there will be short route buses for each area. “On a flat rate of Rs 4 or Rs 5, people from different parts of an area will be able to get to the main bus stand of that area or to the nearest grid and trunk routes,’’ said BMTC managing director Upendra Tripathy.

This model is similar to that adopted by the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST), where buses transport people from different parts of an area to the local train station of that area.

BMTC plans to allocate over 1,000 buses for this. “With the introduction of the grid and trunk routes, some routes will become obsolete. The feeder service will cater to all the other busstops and connect them to the grid or trunk routes,’’ said CTF chairman R V Bhosekar.

The feeder service will be offered in 15 areas with over 150 routes, each not more than 6-8 km. “We plan to start in a phased manner with five to six buses in an area with a frequency of 15 minutes or so. Once the plan takes off, there should be about 10 to 15 buses in an area that operate on a frequency of five minutes,’’ said Bhosekar.

The feeder service is still being planned. This will reduce traffic congestion and bring down waiting time at a bus-stop to not more than two to three minutes, though it it may involve taking two buses to reach a destination.