BMTC will first introduce hybrid buses, which can run on diesel or compressed natural gas (CNG) or battery.
The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) will be the first public transport corporation in the country to run battery-operated buses.
Shankarlinge Gowda, principal secretary to the state government for transport, on Friday, said the BMTC will first introduce hybrid buses, which can run on diesel or compressed natural gas (CNG) or battery.
Bangalore will have buses running on CNG by 2013, said Gowda at a workshop on sustainable development of public transport organised by International Association of Public Transport (also known as UITP).
He said the state government was in touch with a few Indian manufacturers who are pioneers in designing such buses. “Indian manufacturers of hybrid buses have the capacity of manufacturing only 50 such buses a year. It could take time to procure en masse,” he said.
To create sustainable transport for rural and urban places in the future, emission standards have to go through a lot of innovation. This, Gowda said, was happening but not being implemented.
“In our state, we have given functional autonomy to the four major transport corporations. They have to make themselves financially viable to introduce innovations and not to drag the government to fund for such progressions,” said Gowda.
He called upon the officers of Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and BMTC, the only two profit-making public transport corporations in the country, to expand quality services through innovation like battery or CNG-operated buses. “This, in short, is the future,” said Gowda.
He said BMTC will be procuring 1,000 more buses, including Marcopolo and air-conditioned Marcopolo buses, from the end of this year to meet the increasing need. Currently, BMTC operates a fleet of 6,088 buses.
At the workshop, delegates from Karnataka public transport corporations, secretariat levels and land development bodies stressed on creating sustainable urban transportation.
K Jairaj, additional chief secretary to the government; Gaurav Gupta, MD, KSRTC; KR Sreenivas Murthy, MD, BMTC; and Heather Allen, senior manager with UITP were also present at the workshop.
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