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It's India's Silicon Valley. It's one of the fastest growing cities
in the world. It's called the city of the future. It's Bangalore.
But to realize the city's full potential, improvement in infrastructure
needs to be undertaken on a war footing.
 Transportation
is a city's lifeline and every year Bangalore sees an alarming increase
in the number of vehicles that hit the roads. The Bangalore Metropolitan
Transportation Corporation (BMTC) is planning to come out with
novel 'Metro Buses' (MB), which offers a better transportation
system to commuters. These MBs would occupy less space when compared
to other buses. It is hoped that a large number of MBs would be made
available as existing buses provide only 56 per cent of the transport
required by the populace. These buses are expected to prove as successful
in Bangalore as they have been in Singapore and Kiritiba of Brazil.
Arrangements needed: BMTC finds running MBs more economical than
the elevated rail transit system, as it does not require any spec ial
roads. But they do need some 'special space'. For this, a dedicated
lane of seven meters (so that two MBs can move simultaneously) has
to be arranged with road dividers. The existing dividers might be
made use of for the purpose. It may also entail having to shorten
the footpath to some extent or even to remove it completely
Features: There will be two types of MBs coming into operation
- single and double articulated types. Single articulated MBs will
comprise two busses joined together with a single vestibule with the
capacity to accommodate 215 passengers. Similarly, the double articulated
one will have three buses connected with two vestibules and can carry
320 commuters. Both the types have great initial pick-up.
Ordinary BMTC buses will bring commuters from places further away
to the route of MBs, which runs from and to prime locations. While
ordinary buses will ply at intervals of five minutes, MBs will run
once in two minutes. Bus stops that come up on MB routes will be designed
well enough to ensure that passengers can move in and out of the buses
easily.
Initially, these MBs would ply between Jayanagar and Shivajinagar,
covering Vijaya college, Basavanagudi Police station, National college,
Bangalore Medical College, Victoria hospital, Town hall, Kaveri Bhavan,
Vidhana Soudha and Queen's circle on a trial basis.
BMTC has already indented for twenty-five MBs with Volvo, a Swedish
automobile manufacturing company, and plans are on the anvil to acquire
one hundred such buses in four stages. Groundwork done by the former
BMTC Managing Director Pradeep Singh Kharola will enable the
city to have these buses in the coming months. If all the infrastructure
and bus buying procedure can be completed within the planned framework,
Bangaloreans can look forward to a very good transportation system.
Interview with Pradip Singh Kharola, former MD of BMTC.
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