Woes to end on BMTC non-stop buses

Woes to end on BMTC non-stop buses
By S Praveen Dhaneshkar,DHNS,Bangalore:
Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) will introduce non-stop Point-to-Point service to make travel swifter, sans the jostling and endless waits at bus-stops next month.

Come January, BMTC bus commuters could look forward to reaching their destination faster without having to lose precious time at bus-stops en route as non-stop “Point-to-Point” services will become a reality.

The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) will introduce the service to make travel swifter, sans the jostling and endless waits at bus-stops next month. This, traffic experts feel, will not only save time but also popularise public transport.

BMTC Managing Director Upendra Tripathy said: “Twenty per cent of the 500-strong ‘Suvarna’ peak hour fleet that would hit the roads in January, will run on “non-stop” routes with a flat fare. Operating along with the regular buses, they would considerably ease the rush at bus-stops and make travel faster. A service every 20 minutes connecting various points of the City will be introduced,” he said.

The service will offer directional connectivity — from the South to the North and East to West — of the City. Prof Sreehari, a traffic engineering expert, described the BMTC move as a viable way to reach destinations faster as the City roads might just be unable to accomodate any more automobiles. “With the City’s thoroughfares making for a perfect recipe for traffic jams and bumper-to-bumper crawl being the order of the day, commuters would want to travel faster. BMTC could also consider plying them on flexi routes, wherein they could traverse not on scheduled routes, but take roads/streets with lesser traffic to reach destinations. The government must offer practical solutions through public transport until the Metro rail gets going,” he added.