oh! sorry i intended to write best operated, simply wrote best instead. In BLR some QoS is going to suffer because of congestion. And I am not convinced that you can solve congestion by adding to it. But there is definitely a case for replacing what exists with a better services. Check Vasanth's ideas of these. SB, had mentioned about paying more for buses. And all I wanted to say was BLR already pays more. Why dont you write more about pivatization?

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to their credit, bangaloreans already pay more than others for public transit, that is what makes BMTC think of innovations. For as long as I remember, Chennai had the best system in SI, if not India, then suddenly, even as they watched, BMTC stole the thunder from right under their nose. (i forget the name of the neta who did this, but somewhere in late 90s, one guy had the brainwave to make it a stand alone system, due credits to him.) the thing about volvo is the attitude. even though i would prefer they call the service something else, it was very perceptive to id a class of service and facilitate it, rather than going about it dogmatically to fit a social theory. at the very least it shows that they are upto the cutting edge in bus tech & service. as far as the survey itself goes, i would say, tell us something new. for as long as we can remember, we have cribbed about how pedestrian the egov in india's silicon valley has been. I mean how many at praja were solicited? they would have given them an earful!! (modesty, whats that?) :) oh! btw, do check this, when is BLR going to go so idealistic?

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Tarle G: No doubt, BMTC is the best among govt. run city bus services in the country. It is only because the top people in the BMTC are honest, efficient, and innovative. God knows when the other kind will come in to make a killing. In spite of BMTC being the best, still, there is lot of scope for improvement. Problems are less frequency and more crowds in the non-volvo segment, lack of queues at KGS bus stand, higher ticket rates, high pilferage by conductors, etc. I have always been in favor of privatization. Just look at the services on the west coast Mangalore - same name as Bangalore except the initial letter. Even in Bangalore itself, private city buses running on the Chandapur road are better. Why should the government be in business at all, when private operators can offer cheaper and better service? City Zen

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Actually, on the subject of BMTC - I think the jury is still out on whether privatizing municipal transportation is better than having public monopolies. Look at Delhi. Privatizing city bus services hasn't help the city leapfrog its public transportation system. However, a public monopoly (Metro) is helping a bit. Looking deeper, even Metro alone can't solve Delhi's woes. We will hear more on this subject in due time, let the shine of glitzy stations die down a bit. An integrated transportation system is what we need. And private players can't have end to end role in any large integrated setup - thats too risky. A private monopoly, or even duopoly is worst than a public monopoly. Look at DTH for a fresh example. If you privatize Bangalore's bus services, private players will want to run higher margin services - Volvo types and pay less attention to lower margin mass transport systems. Regulation may help solve that - like it has in telecom sector where they force operators to spend in rural areas, directly or indirectly. Taking BMTC public (aka corporatizing it) may not the best answer as well. Should BMTC exist to make profits, or to provide services? Now just because I have confused the hell out of my own arguments here, don't expect me to provide a good answer here. The best I can think is an integrated transportation setup, with a govt body like BMTC to monitor it, and smaller pieces of this integrated setup thrown open to private players. So you would have - Metro competing with Indian railways or bus operators for long haul city routes - Separate set of companies competing on short-haul bus routes - Yet another set of companies competing on very-short local routes: provide autos, Revas or whatever to take me home from my bus stop or train station - Last, make sure no single player can provide service in all three categories. After all this, what does a BMTC like regulatory body do? They make sure that these separate pieces of transportation system mesh together really well in terms of schedules, fares and services like sanitation, information, and help for elderly/handicapped folks etc. Okay, I got to stop now.

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Thanks S.B., for an excellent analysis! -- City Zen

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