Idle Luxury

Idle Luxury
Author: B V Shiva Shankar Date: 27 Mar 2008

BMTC spends Rs 50 crore on custom-built buses for BIAL but will lose heavily because of delay in airport’s opening


The Bangalore International Airport has missed its deadline, but it is the BMTC which will bear the brunt.

The state-run transport corporation will lose revenue in crores of rupees because of the delayed launch of the international airport.

According to plan, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) will inaugurate Vayu Vajra, a special shuttle service fleet of 40 Volvo and 140 Leyland buses on March 31.

These buses are custom-built to ferry passengers to and from the international airport.

As the inauguration of the airport has been postponed from March 31 to May 11, these expensive buses will have to sit idle for 40 days without earning any returns.

Wait and watch

“We will meet the March 31 deadline given to us earlier, but that is taking us nowhere as we cannot use the buses until the airport is inaugurated,” said Dastaigir Sharief, chief traffic manager, BMTC.

The BMTC has spent over Rs 50 crore to get these buses ready.

Each Volvo bus costs Rs 70 lakh while each Leyland-made bus costs Rs 16 lakh. The corporation has already paid 10 per cent of the cost, and will pay the rest on March 31 when the contractor delivers the vehicles.


All dressed up but nowhere to go

The BMTC was expected to earn money from the buses from day one, with an estimated occupancy of 70 per cent.

The corporation now has to rework its strategy to fill the revenue gap. “We cannot afford to allow such an investment to lie dead for months.

But, we don’t have a choice as the buses are custom-built to cater to airport passengers. We cannot run them on city routes,” said Upendra Tripathi, managing director, BMTC.

BMTC authorities could not assess the total loss; discussions are on in the corporation to make up for the loss.

A source in BMTC said the corporation was contemplating writing to the government for compensation from either BIAL or the government. “BMTC has no direct link with the BIAL.

The delay is because of the government’s instructions, and the onus lies with them. We are not sure about getting compensation, but would like to call attention to this fact,” he said.

The option of converting the buses to regular routes until the inauguration of the airport has been discussed, but there are no takers in the BMTC for this idea.