BMTC - focus areas and recent initiatives

Folks,

Taking things forward from our last Praja meet and to brain storm and plan activities on tracking BMTC initiatives, here's my bit to get things started on a few things that deserve note.

1. Big-10 and HOHO services - scalability and scope for improvements.
 

Taking cues from ABIDE, BMTC has started  gearing up to run “Big 10 Road Services”  on trunk roads and “Kendra Saarige” in Central Business District (CBD). We have started to witness good numbers building up on two of the Big-10 routes  currently operational Trinity - Whitefield and Vellara - E City. Banneragatta Road Big-10 operations starting Monday would have built up as we speak.

The Blue Lines and the Yellow lines meant to be providing auxilliary services to the Big-10s for transporting commuters to various points in the CBD. There have been posts questioning the handling of each of these services in unision, how a synchronised service of a Big-10 feeding a KS and vice versa. There is a need to track this pilot project, bring to light the loopholes and get some quick wins to expand these services across the city.

2. BMTC Fleet expansion plans

BMTC's take on recommendations by ABIDE towards fleet expansion. There is a need to seek data about routes where there is a need to get more buses to be running. Considerations regarding optimizing the existing fleet without expansion, by effective time management and synchronizing schedules to meet the growing demands in the city. Acertainly viable option over the former.

3. Organised Bus bays and efficient TTMCs

Follow up on BMTC plans to introduce TTMC’s at 45 various locations in Bangalore. We have seen the Shantinagar TTMC operational for quite a while now and how has the  public response been this far. A survey might be of help.  Have we been able to  meet the expecations of the rationale behind launching such TTMCs - this might give impetus to driving similar projects across various other parts in the city as   planned. Use of BMTC branded small vehicles to tackle last mile connectivity issues - a well debated topic on this forum.

As per a Hindu report, The Traffic Engineering Cell (TEC) of the BBMP has taken up construction of the bays and has invited tenders for 100 bus bays out of 140 proposed by the BMTC. There has been some evident work under progress ahead of KR circle on Nripatunga Road. It is paramount for the BBMP-BMTC to work together overcoming the inter urban planning authority issues we have faced in the past to get these projects running and help them achieve results.

4. Fleet crew compensation models

Ticket sales based compensation for fleet crew in BMTC. Scope for remodelling the remunetration for the crew - Scope for improvements?

Could we get people involved in debating the compensation models practised in BMTC for its fleet crew. At hind sight it looks like the crew focus more on ticket sales per trip on any specific route rather than on the timing their travel. This results in a slowdown in frequency of operations, buses not being available at expected arrival times and add up to traffic congestion.
   
5. BMTC Routing and Timing mechanisms

Restructuring the existing fleet routing schedules uniformly for both peak and non peak hour travel and implementing the most suggested Direction over Destination strategy. This if found successful could also address the fleet expansion issues.
Improved user reliability is a direct factor of improved availability and streamlining of services. The 335E/333P (KBS-ITPL), 356C/356N(KBS-E City) volvo routes are good examples to this account. The 319C (KBS-OMR-ITPL) though, proved to be a disaster due to dwindling commuter numbers.


6. Rail Vajras - an option to consider?

The Vayu Vajras after having got off to a slow start have become quite popular amongst the flying community today.
There have been discussions held on the forum here to suggest BMTC to expand such services to the rail travellers as well. The Bangalore City Railway Station, Yeshwantpur and Cantonment serving as major junctions provide a good opportunity for the BMTC to run dedicated services from different parts of the city, modalities of the same could be discussed before taking this proposal forward. And if estimated figures were to be right, around 40,000 commuters per day is remarkably good to convince the authorities of revenue generation related concerns if any.

7. BMTC Advertising strategies

We have off late been seeing BIG Street operated bus shelters across almost all parts of the city. As per a recent report, BIG STREET a division of Reliance ADAG, the company specializing in the OOH (Out of Home) media business in an attempt to expand its reach, has taken the ‘Street Furniture’ route by activating 172 hi-tech bus shelters in Bangalore.
BMTC provides Bus side panels and back panels for putting advertisement by the interested companies/organisations. We have seen this on out Vajras and Suvarnas and specific details have also been put up on the BMTC website.
It would be interesting to get first hand information on the advertising models practised at BMTC and their future plans to improvise on them.

BMTC Meeting Presentation and Minutes

We had a meeting with the CTM(O) of BMTC, the first half a presentation was presented by Praja (attached below)

There were a couple of topics discussed ranging from how to publicize BMTC to feeder minibusses.

A list of suggestions was also given to BMTC. The list of suggestion has been put up in a different

Attachment	Size
Essence of BMTC Discussions on Praja-V3-(Includes co-ordinatition slide).ppt	981.5 KB

BMTC Meeting Update - Need innovative ideas!

Today, a small team of Praja members interacted with Traffic Team at BMTC headed by the CTM(O). Following are the minutes of the meeting:

The agenda was to look at ways to popularize and increase the ridership of the Volvo services. A two way approach was suggested -

• To provide quality information to the current users
• Encourage private vehicle users to switch to Volvo services (attract new customers)

Some of the suggestions were -

1. To upgrade/update the BMTC website.
2. Provide a section dedicated to Volvo services, detailing all the routes and time schedules.
3. Use of "Moving Maps" to dynamically map buses on to maps - once all buses are fitted with GPS tracking devices.
4. Re-introduction of YelliEdira service.
5. Use FM radio to popularize services - organize weekly/daily contests based on Volvo routes.
6. Advertising campaigns at major IT hubs/companies - MG road/Electronic City/Whitefield (Will need the help of Praja members to help co-ordinate these campaigns).
7. Putting up Volvo bus fares/routes and time tables at all bus stands.
8. Once BMTC volvo website is updated, an email campaign would be started. Assistance from civic groups like Hasiru Husiru, CAF and others along with Praja will be needed to spread the reach.
9. Actively sort feedback from customers and work on them.

Feedback collection mechanisms that were suggested -

1. Phone based feedback (a dedicated line to be operated by BMTC to record customer feedback - could be an automated recording system).
2. SMS based feedback (customers can send SMS to specified numbers with suggestions). In both Phone based and SMS based solutions, the contact numbers could be widely advertised within the buses for easy accessibility.
3. Feedback forms asking specific questions within Volvo buses and popular malls (discount coupons could be provided to encourage people to use the forms).
4.  Feedback section on BMTC website.

Other Miscellaneous issues that were discussed at the meeting -

1. Kendra Sarige (HOHO) service routes have been changed - updated routes to be put up on BMTC site shortly.
2. Introduction of high parking fee to discourage use of private vehicles.
3. Need for congestion taxes and dedicated bus lanes.
4. Fleet expansion (currently there are 310 Volvo buses, 200 more will be inducted in the next one year).
5. Need for BMLTA.
6. Delays in the formulation of BMLTA act.
7. Inter department co-ordination problems - between BBMP and BMTC.
8. BBMP owns all bus shelters in Bangalore. Though BMTC has requested for more than 3000 bus stands, BBMP is progressing very slowly. New bus stands are being introduced only in high visibility locations (advertising benefits) and others areas are being ignored by BBMP.
9. The advertising rights in bus shelters completely owned by BBMP. Though a plan was put forward to BMTC to display live real time bus schedules/arrival times on LED/LCD panels at bus stands, the plan had to be shelved because, BMTC didnt have the rights to display such panels at the bus stands.

What BMTC expects from the general public and Praja -

1. General ideas on how to popularize public transport in general and Volvo services in particular.
2. How to encourage non IT crowd to use Volvo services.
3. Better ideas for advertising - please add on to the above suggestions.
4. Help in advertising campaigns (will need coordinator to at large companies and IT parks to facilitate campaigns).
5. Ideas on Map based passenger information systems.
6. Feedback on routes - route rationalization and costing are important issues that they are looking into, but their current priority is to increase ridership and make the service self sustaining.
   
7. Public pressure on BBMP to allocate advertising real estate at bus stops to BMTC and for construction of bus stands and bus bays.

Praja members please put on your thinking caps and suggest ideas to popularize Volvo services and increase their ridership. The next task would be to engage in route ratinalization and costing (but these are secondary at the moment).

BBMP engagement managers please raise the BBMP specific issues listed about with the BBMP authorities.

Hence forth such meeting will be announced publicly on Praja and anyone interested can join. Due to lack of time and co-ordination issues the meeting was a closed one.

BMTC info

Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation

TYPE OF SERVICES

As on 28-5-2009

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sl No.    Type of Services      No. of sch's             % age

------------------------------------------------------------------------------         

1    Ordinary services                 3324                      62.06         

2    Vajra (Volvo)  services         251                        4.69         

3    Vayu Vajra Service                58                          1.08         

4    Mahila Special                       12                          0.22         

5    Pass Special                          88                         1.64         

6    Hospital special services    3                            0.06         

7    Mall special services            1                            0.02         

8    Bangalore Rounds               2                            0.04         

9    Pushpak                                154                         2.88         

10    Suvarna Services               320                        5.97         

11    Janapriyavahini                  164                        3.06         

12    BIG 10                                  110                        2.05         

13    Kendra Sarige                     18                          0.34         

14    Metro/Grid services            173                        3.23         

15    Trunk Services                     57                         1.06         

16    Moffusil Services                 54                          1.01         

17    Night Services                      86                         1.61         

18    Late Night Services             25                         0.47         

19    Mini + AC Mini                       141                       2.63         

20    Feeder Services                  44                          0.82         

21    ORR schedules                  220                        4.11         

22    Chartered Services             51                          0.95         

                                       TOTAL    5356              

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Total Sch Kms per day    1255437.2              

    Total Sch trips per day    73,468              

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------     

 Category of services    BMTC        PVT        Total        %

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Shift                               1019        0        1019        19.03

  Night out                      2432        24        2456        45.86

  General Shift               1865        16        1881        35.12

  Total                             5316        40        5356        100

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

-----------------------------------------------------------  

 Type of services              Total    %    Routes

 ----------------------------------------------------------

 City Services                1503    28.06    528    

 Sub urban Services    3853    71.94    1430    

 Total                                5356    100    1958    

 -----------------------------------------------------------

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------     

 Kms                                            Total Kms    % age

 -------------------------------------------------------------------         

  City                                            262078.5    20.88         

  Suburban                                 911823.3    72.63         

  Pushpak + JPV (City+Sub)    70853.0        5.64         

  Private (City+Sub)                    10682.4        0.85         

  TOTAL                                     1255437.2    100.00

 --------------------------------------------------------------------         

 

     

 

ABSTRACT    

 

----------------------------------------------------------    

 Type of Service          Sch's    Kms      Trips    

 -----------------------------------------------------------

  Vayu Varja                   58    24601.5      590    

  Volvo schedules      252    51854.3      2309    

  Total                           310    76455.8      2899    

                     

  BIG 10                        110    23773.1      1305    

  Kendra Sarige             18    2431.8         135    

 -----------------------------------------------------------     

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------

                                    D/O    N/O       G/S         Sch's

-----------------------------------------------------------------

BMTC over all        1016    2455       1870     5341

% age                     19.02    45.97    35.012    100

excluding Ordinary  976    2075       1257    4308

% age                     22.66    48.17      29.18    100

-----------------------------------------------------------------     

 

 

List of questions For BMTC project

Before taking the BMTC project forward we should have a list of queries ready. A list of questions for BMTC RTIs are given below.  Lets finalize the list and get going.

	Query	Why do we need this data?	Filed By	Filed On	Comments
A. Fleet Details - General
A.1	Total number of Buses that are currently under operation				5441
A.2	Total Number of buses that are used for regular schedule
A.3	Total number of buses available and used for non-regular schedule like daily contract to private companies, special Sevices, etc.
A.4	What are the different Categories of buses operated by BATCH (Vera, Pushpin…)?				Pushpak Parisara Vahini Vayuvajra and Survarna Curitiba Red Board Black Board
A.5	Number of buses in each of these categories?
A.6	Total number of buses tracked by GPS systems.
A.7	Average age of buses (category wise)
A.8	Average running cost (category wise).
A.9	Average mileage of the vehicles (category wise).
A.10	Monthly wise fuel expenditure for the last 24 months.
B. Fleet Details - Maintenance
B.1	Number of buses on regular maintenance (category wise?) on daily and monthly Basis
B.2	Average maintenance cost per Bus in each category.
B.3	Average time taken for the maintenance of each bus
	Average turn around time for each Bus
B.4	Annual Budget for Maintennance
C. Fleet Details - Breakdowns
C.1	Average number of breakdowns				2153
C.2	In last 3 years, average cost of all the breakdowns
C.3	Top 10 causes of the Breakdowns
C.4	Average cost of each of the breakdowns
C.5	Average Turn around time for repairs and breakdowns
D. Staffing Details
C.1	Total number of the Employees at BMTC - Both Permanent and Temporary				20473
C.2	List of all Employee cadre with designations and number of elpmoyees in each cadre, including management personnel upto CMD.
C.3	Total number drivers cum conductors (in some buses the driver himself issues the tickets - horrible idea - holds up the traffic unnecessarily - additional pressure on drivers).				Drivers (7489) conductors (5775) Driver / Conductors (3610) Maintenance staff (2107) administrative staff and others (1492)
D. Training and Safety Education
D.1	Details of all the training programs (to whom the training program targeted, number of attendees, duration of the training) conducted for the staff during the last financial year.
D.2	Total expenditure incurred on the bove training
D.3	Total number of safefty awareness program or training sessions conducted in last one yearbove training
D.4	Total expenditure incurred on the above safety awareness training session.
D.5	Does BMTC have any process or procedure to evaluate the drivers, conductors for their physical fitness and skill set to operate the buses.
D.6	Copy of training manual and safety instructions
E. Revenue and Expenditure Details (including earnings from non transportation operations)
E.1	Audited balance sheet for the last financial year.
E.2	Total Monthly revenues
E.3	Total Monthly Expenditure
E.4	Total revenue earned by each category of the Bus Service like VV, KS< BIG-10, ..etc
E.5	Total # of monthly passed issued and the revenues generated from these monthly passes (category wise for the last 12 months - there are different categories of passes).				2.36 lakhs passes in total
E.6	Total # of daily passed issued and the revenues generated from these daily passes (category wise for the last 12 months - there are different categories of passes).				1.82 lakhs passes daily
E.7	Total revenues generated from advertising (on buses, in BMTC operated bus stations, etc).
E.8	Total ridership and revenue earned on top 10 longest routes
E.9	Total ridership and revenue earned on circular routes
F. Contract Service to private companies.
F.1	Number of buses used for private company (IT Parks) transportation (Name of company/IT park, number of buses, total number of trips operated daily, number of buses deployed - category wise).
F.2	Total number of buses that are dedicated for the Contract service to private companies.
F.3	Total number of Regular schedule buses that are used for the Contract service to private companies.
F.4	Most common timings during which these services are run.
F.5	List of all the routes/areas that these service covers
F.6	Total revenues earned from these servcies (montly wise for the last 12 months).
F.7	Total ridership in this buses in each trip - Morning, Evening trips.
F.8	Yearly growth in the number of buses deployed for these service over the past 5 years.
F.9	Total number of Vayu Vajras operating.				69 Vayuvajra and Suvarna
F.10	Average monthly revenues generated from Vayu Vajra service (data for last 6 months).
F.11	Average monthly running and mainteance cost of Vayu Vajras (data for last 6 months). What is the estimated revenue per month needed to breakeven on the Vayu Vajra services.
G. Planning and Schedule
G.1	Total number of routes operated by BMTC, parameters used while evaluating these, scope for improving the system, initiatives taken in this direction				5247 schedules
G.2	Process of adding or approving new routes.  For last ten routes added, details of the process followed along with the justification or reasons.
G.3	Routing models practised at BMTC - Is this done in consultation with a planning body, if not how is this currently managed?
G.4	Time management while conducting day to day operations. Are the authorities strict about adherence to schedules. If yes, how and by whom are these managed and monitored?
G.5	Process followed for numbering new routes
H. Bus Stops
H.1	Last ten bus shelters moved or shifted by BMTC or BBMP, what were the grounds for moving them.
H.2	What is process or procedure followed in adding a new Bus stop.
I. Accidents and insurance
	Bus to accident ratio.				No. of Accidents: 462 Rate of Accidents/Lakh Kms.: 0.15
I.1	Route to accident ratio, and the route with most accidents.
I.2	Total amount paid by BMTC towards insurancing its buses
I.3	Number of insurance claims filed by BMTC per month
I.4	# of incidents in which action is taken against BMTC staff for the accidents or public complaint.
J. Misscellaneous
J.1	Details of all BMTC owned/operated property lent/leased to non BMTC entities (name and address to whom the property has been lent/leased, location, area, annual rent/lease).
J.2	Details of revenues generated from BMTC owned/operated/leased parking areas (including details of location, parking area, parking contractor, lease details).

 

New BMTC RTI list

 

SSL. No	Query	Why do we need this data?		Filed By		Filed On		Comments
A. Fleet Details - General
A.1	Total number of Buses that are currently under operation
A.2	Total Number of buses that are used for regular schedule
A.3	Total number of buses available and used for non-regular schedule like daily contract to private companies, special Sevices, etc.
A.4	What are the different Categories of buses operated by BATCH (Vera, Pushpin…)?
A.5	Number of buses in each of these categories?
A.6	Total number of buses tracked by GPS systems.
A.7	Average age of buses (category wise)
A.8	Average running cost (category wise).
A.9	Average mileage of the vehicles (category wise).
A.10	Monthly wise fuel expenditure for the last 24 months.
B. Fleet Details - Maintenance
B.1	Number of buses on regular maintenance (category wise?) on daily and monthly Basis
B.2	Average maintenance cost per Bus in each category.
B.3	Average time taken for the maintenance of each bus
	Average turn around time for each Bus
B.4	Annual Budget for Maintennance
C. Fleet Details - Breakdowns
C.1	Average number of breakdowns
C.2	In last 3 years, average cost of all the breakdowns
C.3	Top 10 causes of the Breakdowns
C.4	Average cost of each of the breakdowns
C.5	Average Turn around time for repairs and breakdowns
D. Staffing Details
C.1	Total number of the Employees at BMTC - Both Permanent and Temporary
C.2	List of all Employee cadre with designations and number of elpmoyees in each cadre, including management personnel upto CMD.
C.3	Total number drivers cum conductors (in some buses the driver himself issues the tickets - horrible idea - holds up the traffic unnecessarily - additional pressure on drivers).
D. Training and Safety Education
D.1	Details of all the training programs (to whom the training program targeted, number of attendees, duration of the training) conducted for the staff during the last financial year.
D.2	Total expenditure incurred on the bove training
D.3	Total number of safefty awareness program or training sessions conducted in last one yearbove training
D.4	Total expenditure incurred on the above safety awareness training session.
D.5	Does BMTC have any process or procedure to evaluate the drivers, conductors for their physical fitness and skill set to operate the buses.
D.6	Copy of training manual and safety instructions
E. Revenue and Expenditure Details (including earnings from non transportation operations)
E.1	Audited balance sheet for the last financial year.
E.2	Total Monthly revenues
E.3	Total Monthly Expenditure
E.4	Total revenue earned by each category of the Bus Service like VV, KS< BIG-10, ..etc
E.5	Total # of monthly passed issued and the revenues generated from these monthly passes (category wise for the last 12 months - there are different categories of passes).
E.6	Total # of daily passed issued and the revenues generated from these daily passes (category wise for the last 12 months - there are different categories of passes).
E.7	Total revenues generated from advertising (on buses, in BMTC operated bus stations, etc).
E.8	Total ridership and revenue earned on top 10 longest routes
E.9	Total ridership and revenue earned on circular routes
F. Contract Service to private companies.
F.1	Number of buses used for private company (IT Parks) transportation (Name of company/IT park, number of buses, total number of trips operated daily, number of buses deployed - category wise).
F.2	Total number of buses that are dedicated for the Contract service to private companies.
F.3	Total number of Regular schedule buses that are used for the Contract service to private companies.
F.4	Most common timings during which these services are run.
F.5	List of all the routes/areas that these service covers
F.6	Total revenues earned from these servcies (montly wise for the last 12 months).
F.7	Total ridership in this buses in each trip - Morning, Evening trips.
F.8	Yearly growth in the number of buses deployed for these service over the past 5 years.
F.9	Total number of Vayu Vajras operating.
F.10	Average monthly revenues generated from Vayu Vajra service (data for last 6 months).
F.11	Average monthly running and mainteance cost of Vayu Vajras (data for last 6 months). What is the estimated revenue per month needed to breakeven on the Vayu Vajra services.
G. Planning and Schedule
G.1	Total number of routes operated by BMTC, parameters used while evaluating these, scope for improving the system, initiatives taken in this direction
G.2	Process of adding or approving new routes.  For last ten routes added, details of the process followed along with the justification or reasons.
G.3	Routing models practised at BMTC - Is this done in consultation with a planning body, if not how is this currently managed?
G.4	Time management while conducting day to day operations. Are the authorities strict about adherence to schedules. If yes, how and by whom are these managed and monitored?
G.5	Process followed for numbering new routes
H. Bus Stops
H.1	Last ten bus shelters moved or shifted by BMTC or BBMP, what were the grounds for moving them.
H.2	What is process or procedure followed in adding a new Bus stop.
I. Accidents and insurance
	Bus to accident ratio.
I.1	Route to accident ratio, and the route with most accidents.
I.2	Total amount paid by BMTC towards insurancing its buses
I.3	Number of insurance claims filed by BMTC per month
I.4	# of incidents in which action is taken against BMTC staff for the accidents or public complaint.
J. Cost of Buses
J.1	Details of total# of buses purchased in the year 2008.
J.2	Details of procurement costing for each category of the buses that are purchased.  A. Categories of Buses that are purchased  B. Final Cost of each Bus under each category  C. Cost Break up of Each bus - Cost for Chassis, Body Building, Taxes and registration
K. Misscellaneous
K.1	Details of all BMTC owned/operated property lent/leased to non BMTC entities (name and address to whom the property has been lent/leased, location, area, annual rent/lease).
K.2	Details of revenues generated from BMTC owned/operated/leased parking areas (including details of location, parking area, parking contractor, lease details).