BMTC revenue drops by 70 per cent

Bengaluru: Due to poor occupancy of the buses the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has revealed that its revenue has come down by 70%.

According to BMTC official, "In the last four months, the roads are almost empty most of the day, also the lockdown has lifted yet there are no crowds waiting at any bus stop. Even in the interior areas of the city, hardly any people are seen on the road. And shops including eateries that are allowed to open, have hardly any clients. This pandemic has made us fall into huge loss because people are worried about getting into buses."

In the beginning, the corporation expected that commuters from lower-income groups will use BMTC buses, because they may not have a choice. Volvos are anyways not suited during COVID times. The corporation had many plans to make a safe ride by installing plastic barriers around 1,000 plus buses to shield drivers and also distributed face-shields and masks to all conductors, but people did not travel in BMTC buses even after the lockdown was lifted.

From running 800 Volvo buses trips on an average per day earlier to a maximum of 180 trips per day now and 6000 normal buses to 3000 buses now, this hugely profitable service of the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has taken a huge beating for the last four months.

"Even Vayu Vajra service has stopped except airport services. It was quite profitable due to the higher pricing of its tickets. This forced the corporation to keep adding more routes and buses to its fleet gradually. Now, this has directly hit on the revenue which makes the salary delay for the employees. From operating 6100 buses per day, it is operating 3000 buses now. The monthly revenue has slumped from around Rs 150 crore to Rs 30 crore, which is around 1.25 crore every day" official added.

BMTC buses which began operations from the KSR railway station two months before the lockdown have stopped completely since only special trains operate now.

Around 171 of its employees have been tested positive for COVID- 19 and one succumbed to the infection, unpaid salaries, poor occupancy of its buses due to virus fear, rising fuel cost and inadequate support from the state government.