BMTC yet to install display boards at bus shelters

By Nischith N | NT

Bengaluru: It has been two years since Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) gave permission to the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) to install Passengers Information Display Board (PISBs) in all its 2,000-plus bus shelters across the city. But not a single bus shelter in the city currently has such a display board.

As per the plan, a PISB will provide the exact time of arrival of buses on a particular route among other relevant information. It will also display navigation maps, routes, buses available on different routes, bus numbers that arrive at that bus stop and real-time information of arrival of buses.

“Initially BBMP has asked the BMTC officials to conduct a survey to identify bus shelters which need PIDBs and submit the report to the Traffic Engineering Cell (TEC) of the BBMP, which will take up the work soon after the BMTC submits the survey report of altering the shelters. So initially it was installed in 650 bus shelters as permitted by the civic body and later it was asked to extend it to the remaining 1,500 plus bus shelters in the next phase. But the project has remained a non-starter because of the losses the Corporation has incurred in the past two years,” said a BMTC senior official.

It has been recorded that commuters complain for lack of necessary information at bus shelters in the city. According to the transport rule, BMTC buses are considered to be Stage Carriages and their fares are governed by notifications put out by the government under the act. BMTC should display stage fare boards at every bus station in the city which gives complete figures on the bus fare for passenger destinations.

“It has been mentioned in the BMTC rule that every bus stop should display a stage fare board to help passengers know about the bus fare to all stops. But the Corporation has not followed this until today, not a single bus stand in the city has this kind of fare board,” said a transport activist.

At present, bus shelters are under the control of the BBMP. So BMTC, which operates buses on more than 2,000 routes in Bengaluru, has around 2,212 plus bus shelters.

The BMTC bus that ply in the city has fixed its fare on stage basis for every 2 Km. Also, commuters and other urban experts complain that BBMP who took over the maintenance of bus shelters 11 years ago has failed to give a proper service for the citizens.

“The project has been stopped and as of now nothing has been processed. But we have successfully installed PIDBs at all our 11 Traffic Transit Management Centres. Each centre has 10 such boards. Going forward, this project will be addressed soon,” a BMTC senior official said.