Volvo run to techie land hits fare hurdle

Volvo run to techie land hits fare hurdle

Odeal D'Souza. Bangalore

The crying child finally gets the candy but drops it on the ground. This is the case of units clamouring for Volvo buses to Electronic City.
Four months ago, the Electronic City Industries' Association (ELCIA) had appealed to the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) to provide 50 Volvo buses to their IT enclave.
BMTC said it was ready to provide them with any number of buses. But the association is not willing to agree on the fares the BMTC normally charges from each passenger for this service.
Instead, the association wants monthly passes of Rs1,250 per passenger for the service. But the BMTC says it cannot come down beyond Rs1,650. "There is a deadlock," said KS Vishwanath, chief traffic manager operations of BMTC.
"We've a standard monthly rate of Rs1,750 per passenger. We've even expressed our willingness to reduce the fare by Rs100 as a special case. But they've rejected it. How can we run the services at such low rates?" he said.
"IT people are creating such traffic mess in the city. The association's appeal for Volvo service is meant to decongest the roads leading the Electronic City. Hence they should rethink on the rates," he added. "Our intention is to encourage more IT staff to avail these services at a reasonable rate. We'll continue our talks with the BMTC," said H Prakash Rao, chief executive officer of ELCIA.
While the launch of Volvo services remains doubtful at this juncture, Electronic City is making full use of Big 10 bus services. Available every 10 minutes, Big 10 buses link 10 major roads in the city to the Outer Ring Roads," Rao felt.