Soon, enjoy Internet, TV on the road to Bangalore airport

Here’s good news for the techno-savvy air travellers who take the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) Volvo buses to the airport. As a pilot project that starts next month, the BMTC will introduce buses with LCD screen fixed behind each seat for passengers to either check the Internet or browse through television channels. The corporation will introduce one such bus in each route to the Bangalore International Airport.

“We will introduce this facility in one BIA bus in each route within a week. Depending on the response, we will later extend it to all the Volvo buses going to BIA. The buses will be fitted with global positioning systems (GPS) and will have Internet and television facilities. In fact, this service is being provided by a private advertising agency and the BMTC is not spending anything on this project,” transport minister R Ashoka said on Tuesday. He said that passengers would not be charged extra for these services, and the same ticket fares would prevail. Apart from Internet facilities, passengers would also be able to obtain flight departure and arrival information, book tickets, and also obtain boarding passes, the minister said.

The BMTC was also planning to introduce 40 buses from the Bangalore City, Yeshwantpur and Cantonment railway stations to various parts of the city to encourage mass transportation. Regular bus services from the three stations would be introduced within a week. “We have discussed this proposal with the railway officials and we will be signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard with them soon. This will drastically reduce the problem of haggling and fleecing that passengers face with autorickshaws,” Ashoka said.

He said buses from the three stations to various points in the city would initially run from 5 am to 10 pm, and the service timings and frequency would gradually be increased. “We will also introduce three mini-buses that will shuttle passengers for free between the City railway station and Kempe Gowda bus terminus. We realised the effectiveness of this service when it was introduced on a temporary basis during the autorickshaw strike in the city. Hence, we decided to implement it on a permanent basis. These buses are already plying, but the service will be officially inaugurated within a week,” Ashoka said.