BMTC plan for smaller metro feeder buses runs into delays

Bengaluru: A Union government scheme to increase intracity buses in the country seems to have kept manufacturers away from showing interest in leasing electric vehicles to the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC). 

The transport operator had to call tenders thrice to lease 120 buses for metro feeder routes. Besides, it floated two tenders to lease 320 AC e-buses and three tenders to procure 10 double-decker AC e-buses. 

The city operator invited tenders in December 2023 and early March to lease 120 non-air-conditioned electric buses to augment its metro feeder network. 

The plan was to hire these nine-metre-long, high-floor (900 mm) buses on a Gross Cost Contract (GCC) where the BMTC would only pay the manufacturer on a per-kilometre basis. The manufacturer would operate and maintain the bus, meaning it would be responsible for providing the driver and setting up the charging infrastructure. 

The BMTC would use funds from the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) and the State Urban Transport Fund (SUTF) to procure these buses. 

The BMTC did not get a satisfactory response in either tender, forcing it to float a third one on March 15. April 10 is the last date to submit the bids. 

BMTC Managing Director Ramachandran R said no electric bus manufacturer showed interest. “The previous tender wasn’t forthcoming, so we had to call a new one,” he told DH. 

He suggested that manufacturers didn’t show interest because of the bulk orders they had received under the PM E-Bus Sewa Scheme. 

The Centre launched the scheme in August 2023 to provide 10,000 electric buses to different state transport undertakings. Bengaluru and 10 other cities in Karnataka will get intracity buses under the scheme. 

Well-known electric bus makers Switch Mobility, JBM Group and Olectra have bagged huge orders for supplying buses under the scheme. 

Ramachandran is hopeful that the BMTC’s new tender will get a good response. While the timelines for bus delivery will be based on how the tender process pans out, the official hoped that the buses would come “shortly”. 

As per the tender, the winning bidder will provide the buses for at least 180 km per day for 350 days and 63,000 km per year during the 12-year contract period. It will also bear the cost of drivers. 

The BMTC operates 158 buses on 46 feeder routes covering 43 metro stations. Between 90,000 and one lakh passengers use the feeder bus service daily. The corporation plans to run 300 metro feeder buses in the near term. 

The new buses are expected to run on narrow roads to provide deeper connectivity. 

Prof MV Rajeev Gowda, the vice-chairman of the State Institute for the Transformation of Karnataka, has endorsed BMTC buses as a viable and affordable option to provide last-mile connectivity at
metro stations. 

He believes there should be “as little time gap as possible” between different modes of transport. In an ideal scenario, he says, a person should get the feeder bus on the main road, go to the metro station, board the train and hop on the bus again for the last mile.