Civic forwared Prof Srihari's performance apprisal of BMTC for Mr N Parameswaran's opinion. Mr P has, in turn, addressed a letter to the Prof as follows:

In the first para, you have stated that 35 lakh commuters use BMTC buses. This is not correct. When I was a Consultant 2.5 years ago, I have seen that only 3 lakh passes and 15 lakh tickets have been issued, which account for only 10 lakh commuters (approx). This number would have gone up by now to say 13 lakhs. Taking into account 25 lakh 2-wheeler and 25 lakh 3-wheeler and other vehicle users, the bus commuters work out to only 20%.

Again bus commuters comprise mainly a huge floating population, Senior citizens, handicapped people, ladies past middle age, commuters coming to city from far flung areas, Retail traders and only very few employees, such Vidhan Soudha employees etc.

The reasons for the poor percentage are

1) The buses are undependable, being operated at 40’ to 1 hour frequency.

2) The bus fares fo short distances are extremely high. Rs 1.65 to Rs 5/- per km( depending upon the position of bus stage), while by a 2-wheeler it will cost only 0.50p.

The above has resulted in driving 15 to 20 lakh short distance commuters to 2-wheelers.

From the nature of bus commuters, it can be seen that they use due to their inescapability.

As measures to improve the working of BMTC you have suggested the following.

1) Provide a separate bus lane

2) At each bus stop indicate all the routes with timings.And indicate the route maps.

3) Increase the fleet to 5000 from the present 4000.

My comments against each are

1) 3 bus lanes have already been provided from Majestic in the road opposite Railway station. All the bus lanes are packed with buses moving at a snail speed. If a bus lane is provided at Corporation bus stand, no bus can overtake another. If a bus is halted at the bus stop, by the time it can move after loading /unloading passengers, 3 or more buses will be waiting behind. By the time another bus halts and moves, a further 3,4 buses will accumulate. Within a short time the bus lane from Corporation to Mahrani’s college will be filled. Thus a separate bus lane will be suicidal to BMTC only.

2) There are 300 routes at Corporation bus stand. To indicate all the route Nos with timings of each would require printed 60 pages.not to speak of route maps. This situation only shows the hollowness of the present system which you have praised to the heavens and warned not to make slightest change. .

3) The present occupancy of buses in only 30% in the peripheral area and 50% in the core area. If some buses are overcrowded, it only reflects the flaws of the system.

It will be too long for me to give my opinion on every aspect you have covered.

But one more point which cannot escape notice is regarding Volvo Buses. You have mentioned at some place that “ the introduction and success of Volvo buses are the testimony in our urban development” When I make a journey fron any point to Majestic, I witness at least half a dozen Volvo buses totally empty, while another half a dozen with only half a dozen passengers. The operation of Volvo bses is 5 times costlier as compared to ordinary buses. On the basis of present operaton, I am afraid each Volvo bus must be making a loss equivalent to the profit made by 20 or even more ordinary buses. With the induction of more and more Volvos, BMTC may soon end up in Volvos colour.

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AG commented:
It is an extremely funny, yet tragic report, typical of govt. run monopolies. Reminds me of "UP mein crime kum hai" campaign run by Mulayam Singh Govt prior to last elections, anchored by Amitabh Bachchan. We should file RTI application, asking them to disclose these so called scientific methods and "stimulations (sic)" they performed for making routing and frequency decisions.


KC added:
I agree with AG that it is an extremely tragi-comic report.  If you are already convinced and self-satisfied that your routes, frequencies, etc. are all perfect and making any changes will upset the balance, there is no hope for you.  The most important factor of frequency is not at all a criterion in the alleged survey that has been conducted.  At one point the expert says that waiting time should not be more than 15 minutes and this can be achieved by scheduling buses every 30 minutes!
 
All over the world the frequency of buses is more during peak hours, every 5-10 minutes and only during non-peak hours is it 20 to 30 mins. And on holidays, perhaps, once an hour during non-peak hours.  It is also a fact that one has to still come to Market, Majestic or Shivajinagar to get connecting buses for most destinations, even though one doesn't want to go there.    Where is the plan to improve frequency and connectivity avoiding these three over-crowded destinations?  There is no public awareness about these supposed grid routes, how frequent they are and how they are functioning.
 
And not having a plan to use alternative shortest distance roads because 'roads are bad' (no plan to have them upgraded?) and making most buses ply on the same old 'good' roads mostly leading to the CBD also seems inappropriate.


SB added:
Somethings in there are accurate, at least Mr Sreehari's take on what commuters value most - Punctuality and Reliability come first, Safety/comfort last. He also compares Bus and autos, and is almost pointing out that punctuality and reliability is a problem with BMTC. He is using relative words to make his point (Good vs Excellent), can't expect to him to be more direct given his situation.

However, I don't think this is a much detailed study, because the last pages (5 recommendations) are weak, and he hasn't gone into routing problem and reasons for BMTC's lack of punctuality/reliability at all. I think the report was made with a purpose of suggesting low hanging fruits, knowing Mr Sreehari's verbosity in these things, I don't think he can be made to keep silent on 1000 other common sense stuff that are a problem when operating buses in our city.

Last - BMTC derives much of its comforts from its monopoly and lack of serious public pressure.


AG further added:
I don't believe in stereotypes, so in no way my comments were made for entire category of such agencies or practices. I commented on the merits of contents of this report only, which to me appears to come from a person engaged on long term basis by the Govt as advisor and to prepare report on a govt. owned/run agency. It is a self-congratulatory report with absolutely no academic reference for a scientific scrutiny conducted to arrive at basic decisions like - the rating points given comparing Auto & BMTC buses. I'm not saying BMTC is all bad. The idea of any report is to consider hard facts, use scientific methods to arrive at proper decision and present them unbiased.


KC further added:
The grid routes may be one option.  But I don't know if they provide as many options as the plan of 'trunk and feeder routes'  being advocated by Mr. N. Parameswaran since decades. In fact, even one of the documents prepared by the Centre talks of this system.  The plan consists of having about 12 or so bus stations all around the periphery of Bangalore from where big buses go only to the other 11 bus stations along trunk routes at a frequency of every 5 minutes.  People are brought to these bus stations by smaller feeder buses from surrounding neighbourhoods which also operate at 5 minute intervals, perhaps on a circular route.  Once they reach their destination bus-stand, people are again taken to their individual destinations by feeder buses which operate every 5 minutes.  
 
This plan obviates the need to go to Majestic, Market and Shivajinagar to change buses. Once you come to the nearest bus-stand  through a feeder bus, you have the option of going to any of  the other 11 or so destinations around Bangalore through direct routes. The multiple changing of buses will not cause much hardship as frequency of buses can be maintained at 5 minutes. In fact, Mr. Parameswaran says that this system can function with fewer buses than are currently running.
 
Currently, BMTC is trying to provide buses to Majestic, Market and Shivajinagar from each and every individual end-point which is unviable, inefficient and unnecessary. That is why we have the situation where buses come one after the other all plying on the same roads in the centre of the city but there are very few actually going where you want to go. A pilot project for implementing Mr. P's  plan was approved by BMTC Board but never implemented in its true spirit.


I responded:
I do concede Mr Parameswaran's proposal has its merits. But, my view is that the grid proposal is better, particularly for its simplicity, whereby even people totally new to Bangalore can take to buses readily. Whatever, all that's academic, since, as you have very correctly pointed out "Mr. P's plan was approved by BMTC Board, but never implemented in its true spirit". That's the crux of what I have been trying to say. Whereas, I tried only for two years, Mr P has been at it for almost a good part of his life-time, and, I must concede, with far greater commitment than me. But, neither he nor I have been able to effect any change. The answer is very simple - they don't want any change, because changes upset existing well entrenched vested interests. So, once in a while, they get their captive experts to recommend the status quo. Such a situation can change, only, repeat only, when there's effective competition from organised sector players (and not the Blueline types), all regulated by BMLTA (where CAF should seek representation).

Now, whichever way CAF decides at the end of the debate, the efforts at getting BMTC to adopt Mr P's proposal or whatever else to improve the services, can be taken up by a CAF team led perhaps by you. There's a far better chance they will accept your suggestions, if I become more strident in my demand for competition with CAF support. And, perhaps for that sake atleast, the MC members will do well to support me. Without that, even if you can get them to as much as display the route numbers properly (forget bilingual destination boards, Yelli Iddira?, route rationalisation, etc, etc), I'll nominate you for 'Karnataka Ratna' this coming Rajyotsava.

Muralidhar Rao

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Fresh letter addressed by Mr Parameswaran to Prof Sreehari:

In continuation of my earlier remarks, I am now sending a few more remarks. Kindly advise CTM, BMTC to implement the BMTC, Board's approval for the experimental Feeder Routes.
 
Two days back, I had been to the clinic, and as the Doctor had not come, I kept waiting. As the clinic is in the main Utharahalli road, I could see all vehicles passing. At 7.20pm, I started counting the buses going each way.  At 7.50 p.m. I stopped when the numbers were 22 buses going towards Utharahalli/ Chikkalasandra and 17 going towards Padmanabhanagar/ Banshankari. ( inc 2 Volvo buses, 3 Hi-tech buses, 2 pushpak, 1 Metro, and the remaining ordinary buses).say an average of 20 in 30 minutes.ie a frequency of 1.5 minutes.  All the buses were thinly occupied, say 0 to 20 passengers only. There was no standee in any bus.

All the 20 buses will have different route numbers, as no route is operated at a higher frequency than 30 minutes.

I am sure the position would not be any different in other areas.

This clearly shows that there is no need for any increase in the fleet as recommended by you.

Though the occupancy of buses was poor, there was no dearth of 2-wheelers which were more than 40 per minute.

Under the FR- TR system, only 2 routes viz
1) Banshankari, Padmanabhanagar, Chikkalasandra Devasthana, Utharahalli and back and
2) Banshankari, Padmanabhanagar, Kidney Foundation, Chikkalasandra  and back
would be operated.  Each at a frequency of 4 minutes, at a flat fare of Rs 3/- and monthly Pass at Rs 80/-. Even if a capacity of 40 passengers is reached, this would give a revenue of Rs 35/- per km which will be the highest for BMTC.

In case you have any doubt about the veracity of my figures, you can depute any of your student and we can make a joint survey.

Muralidhar Rao

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