The chartered services offered by the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) have been raking in the moolah for the state-run transport agency.
The revenue derived from renting out buses to corporates and government departments for ferrying employees has filled the coffers of the BMTC, thus making it one of the country’s profit-making state transport undertakings (STU). The BMTC was in the red a few years ago.
At present, around 500 buses of the corporation have been drafted for the chartered/dedicated services for companies such as Infosys, Manyata Tech Park, information technology firms in ITPL, public sector units such as HAL, BEL etc. Several schools also use BMTC buses to ferry their students.
The corporation earns a revenue of Rs 7.48 crore per month from these services. Last year, it netted Rs 60 crore by hiring out the buses.
“The BMTC was the first STU in the country to start such a service about seven to eight years ago. This type of service is best suited to a city like ours with constant traffic woes. At least, the employees who use these services do not have to bring their own vehicles,” BMTC Managing Director Anjum Parvez told Deccan Herald.
The corporation, at present, offers two kinds of special services – chartered and dedicated. In the case of chartered services, buses pick up and drop the employees and the companies/departments are charged on total kilometers traversed in a day.
Dedicated service is a premium service under which the company buys the monthly passes for its employees and the routes are also chalked out for the company. The advantage here is that the employees can also use the bus passes on any other routes of the BMTC as well.
The introduction of chartered services had drawn severe criticism from the general public in the initial days. It was apprehended that the BMTC would compromise on public service while catering to the companies.
The BMTC has a fleet of 6,700 buses and on an average more than 50 lakh commuters travel by its buses every day.
