Corporation Hopes New System Will Motivate More People To Opt For Public Transport

Are you tired of being pushed around in city buses? Have you been traveling to your office standing in a crowded bus for decades? The BMTC seems to offer some respite for the harried commuter. Very soon, you will be able to reserve seats on city buses.

In a major initiative to make city bus travel more attractive, BMTC will start providing reserved seats on fixed routes on a weekly and monthly basis. For this, BMTC is tying up with a private company for technical support.

BMTC promises booking will be easy - it will be online and can be done from anywhere. Apart from various booking centres in the city, seats can be booked sitting at home, explains a senior officer.

"We are probably the first public transport service in the country to do this,'' BMTC chief traffic manager Dastagir Sharief said. The BMTC has released advertisements saying that reservation would be available on its Vajra Volvo fleet.

How will it be implemented? "We don't think we will have difficulty. We will mark the reserved seats on the left and right hand side. Conductors will issue tickets only for unreserved seats. If local trains can provide reserved seats, why can't city buses'' he asks.

The BMTC hopes to gain by the new system. One, reservation acts like a pre-paid service and there is less scope for ticketless travel. Secondly, if the reservation system becomes a hit, it may motivate people to reduce use of bikes and cars.

BMTC will also extend reservation in the peak hour services. The Survana Peak Hour service has been put in place to address the demand for public transport in the morning and evening. The service will gradually cover all areas of the city with high potential traffic.

In the first phase, BMTC will operate the buses on 20 routes. The buses will operate between 7.30 am and 11 am and from 4.30 pm to 8.30 pm. The limited stops service will charge slightly more than the ordinary service. "The number of passengers will be restricted to the seating capacity,'' he said.


Source: TNN