Bengaluru transport body to deploy 100 Bharat Stage VI-compliant buses soon

The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) will soon add environment-friendly Bharat Stage VI-compliant buses to its fleet. BMTC officials told indianexpress.com on Monday that they have received 100 BS VI-compliant buses from Ashok Leyland and will get another 50 such buses from the company this week.

The BMTC has given an order of 565 BS VI buses to the private transport company. The corporation is procuring the vehicles with the support of the state government.

A senior BMTC official said, “In the year 2017-18, the corporation had given an order for 565 BS VI-compliant buses to the Ashok Leyland company. All these buses will be delivered to us by February next year. We have received 100 buses so far, and they have been parked at the Kengeri bus depot.”

Notably, the BMTC procured 1,406 buses in 2017-18 and 361 in 2019-20. However, no buses were procured in 2021-21 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In addition to the BS VI-compliant buses, the BMTC will also operate 90 non-AC electric buses.

In November, the BMTC unveiled Bengaluru’s first electric bus that will provide feeder services from Namma Metro stations, solving the last-mile connectivity issues faced by Metro riders to a large extent.

Moreover, 90 mini-electric buses will be taken on lease from the National Thermal Power Corporation’s Vypar Vidyut Nigam. Transport minister Sriramulu had also announced that the process to procure an additional 300 buses will be speeded up in the coming days.

At present, the BMTC has a fleet of 6,400 buses, including 860 air-conditioned buses.