Positives:
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The Vajra fleet, which usually carried a total load of around 15,000 commuters daily, transported as many as 97,000 passengers on a single day during the drive.
While 72,000 commuters hopped onto the buses on Thursday, day one of the promotional offer, the number swelled to 97,000 the second day.
While 83,000 people travelled by the Vajra buses on the third day, 80,000 passengers used them on Sunday, the last day of the ride.
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The promotional offer also affected collections on the 4,800 non-Vajra regular BMTC buses. With most of the 32 lakh commuters trying out the Volvo ride, the usual daily collection of nearly Rs. 1.40 crore reduced by Rs. 3 lakh, sources said.
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Officials are confident that even if five per cent of the total 3.32 lakh new passengers preferred Vajra to the regular buses in future, the expenditure incurred on the promotional offer would be justified.
Negatives:
- A top BMTC official told The Hindu on Monday that the tyres of at least five buses either burst or got punctured and the suspensions and blowers of a few other buses got damaged.
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Apart from scratches on the window screens and tearing of seat fabric, the window glass of one Vajra bus (356 C route) shattered as angry commuters threw stones when the driver did not stop the already overcrowded bus at a particular stop.
The window frame of the hi-tech bus costs Rs. 20,000, official sources said.
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My Comments:
- Emphasises the fact that if cheap, safe, clean, effecient and high frequency / capacity transport like Metro / Mono is introduced on such "trunk" routes, buses, autoes, and other private modes of transport will become redundant.
- High Capacity Bus System, Bus Rapid Transit will make a dent on private vehicles if introduced to places such as Electronics City / ITPL
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Read this 'truth' from BMTC's own report
From a study report on BMTC's website (here, pdf file), authored by Mr M N Srihari, here is how 6000 people they surveyed ranked items in their wishlist:
Safety getting ranked last tells you that most commuters think traveling in buses today is safe enough. However, note that cost and comfort are much behind Punctuality, and "how far is the bus stop".
I'd say that punctuality = predictable journey times. and "how far is the bus stop" = last mile problems.
Volvo does matter a bit in the sense that it will clear more road space by persuading car users. But I think the comfort aspect of volvo may be getting oversold here.
Related: a similar poll done a few months "Why I don't use BMTC"
Time for TATA to step in
SB - Again points to the relevance of "Yelli Iddira?".
I had read somewhere that the operational cost of a Volvo bus is Rs 45/- per km. If I recall correctly, Mr Pasha, the BMTC MD, had claimed at the TRANSINNOVA summit that they were making profits just through advertising on these buses, which I am sure is to be taken with not just pinch, but a handful of salt. Besides, like "Yelli Iddira?", the advertising contract appears to have run into hitches.
All in all, with the kind of costs of spare parts, apart from the high running costs, compounded by the low ridership, the operations, I am sure, are bleeding them heavily.
Time for TATA to step in.
Muralidhar Rao
Here is a media link about the damages caused to bus by 1 rupee
And another similar poll...
And another similar poll "i-am-ready-travel-these-types-bmtc-buses"
-- navshot