Here is the solution: leave cars, hop into Volvos

Here is the solution: leave cars, hop into Volvos

BMTC is soon going to launch a new campaign called 'Bus Day' every month to revive services to all major IT hubs

Shwetha S



Forget the stress and pain of driving your four-wheeler to the workplace through polluted, potholed and congested roads.
Instead, hop into Volvo buses run by the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) and help them revive this dedicated service to all major IT hubs.
In the coming days, these buses will be operated from about 10 points in the city to Electronic City, Whitefield, Sarjapur Road, Devanahalli and other IT areas. The corporation will launch a campaign called 'Bus Day' every month to promote public transport to these hubs.
"We were operating dedicated bus services to IT hubs. But the response was poor. Most buses were running almost empty. So it was stopped for some time. Now we're reviving it in a big way. We recently had a meeting with IT companies. They have agreed to tie-up with us again," BMTC sources told DNA.
These services will be on contract basis. The routes will be reviewed according to the places where the employees are residing. At present, there are about 200 Volvo buses plying to various IT hubs.
"From this year, we will run a campaign called 'Bus Day' every month. This will be specifically for IT companies to promote public transport and also de-congest the city roads as majority of IT employees use four-wheelers to go to office. On February 4, we will be promoting this campaign to about 100 IT firms," sources said.
"Recently, we had a meeting with IT companies. On February 4, we will formally have 'Bus Day' to promote public transport, especially to IT sectors. We are still in the process of reviewing new routes to them. We will finalise them according to the number of employees using the service," said K Vishwanath, chief traffic manager of the BMTC.
"Dedicated services to the IT sectors do not work with the techies as most of them do not work on one schedule whereas these dedicated bus services operate on fixed timings. So I think it is not going to work on a long-term basis," said Muralidhar Rao, a traffic expert.
"A lot of IT firms such as Infosys, Wipro and HP are keen on adopting BMTC's Volvo services. The only disadvantage employees of these companies may face is that these dedicated bus services have fixed timings to pick them up and drop them. Most of the IT employees work without any fixed schedule. Hence they won't be able to make use of the bus service completely," sources from the Electronic City Industries Association said.