It’s now BMTC’s turn to collect infrastructure fee

It’s now BMTC’s turn to collect infrastructure fee

Anil Kumar Sastry

Corporation expects to raise Rs. 45 crore a year from it

Fares in certain stages to be increased

BMTC to take up construction of bus shelters with modern facilities

BANGALORE: Close on the heels of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation introducing infrastructure fee on tickets, ranging from Re. 1 to Rs. 10, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation is all set to introduce the same to build up resources for creation of new facilities for commuters.

A senior BMTC official of the told The Hindu that the proposed fee would not be the same as being collected by KSRTC. Fares in certain stages would be increased in its efforts to collect the infrastructure fee, he said.

With the levy of new fee, the corporation expects to raise around Rs. 45 crore a year and intends to deploy the same for construction of bus shelters and online passenger information system within the buses as well as at bus shelters with the introduction of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). GPRS is also essential to bring in automated fare collection system in BMTC.

The official said public transport worldwide had largely been subsidised by governments concerned (whether local or regional) as they want to discourage use of privatised modes of transport.

The governments in the rest of the world assist entities offering public transport, be it a government undertaking or a private entrepreneur, by offering funds and other facilities.

Unfortunately in India, public transport companies are left to fend themselves, for which reason majority of public transport companies were unable to offer adequate public transport thereby increasing the number of private vehicles on roads. However, BMTC was committed to offer adequate and quality public transport service in Bangalore and hence was forced to augment resources from the general public, the official said.

He said the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), which was supposed to provide wayside bus shelters, had failed to provide the same in an adequate and satisfactory manner.

Either the shelters were dingy or lacked aesthetic look and they could not be adapted to technological innovations which BMTC intends to introduce.

As such, BMTC on its own would take up construction of such shelters with modern facilities, such as online passenger information system. The system not only would announce information on buses passing through the particular shelter but also would indicate their present location and the expected time of arrival.

KSRTC introduced the infrastructure fee from July 1. While there was no fee for tickets up to Rs. 10, Re. 1 fee is collected for tickets priced between Rs. 10 and Rs. 20, Rs. 2 for tickets priced between Rs. 20 and Rs. 50, Rs. 5 for tickets between Rs. 50 and Rs. 100 and Rs. 10 for tickets priced above Rs. 100.