The BMTC is one of the three Subsidiaries of Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, in the context of the city's expansion in the year 1997, Bangalore Transport Service was formed. Later Bangalore Transport Service became Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation. and the colour scheme of BTS was also changed from red to a blue and white combination. To this day BMTC still remains a division of KSRTC. The profits earned by BMTC are used to cover the losses from the NWKRTC and NEKRTC divisions of KSRTC. Indian actor superstar Rajinikanth began acting in plays while working in the Bangalore Transport Service as a bus conductor.
Types of services
The following are the services run by BMTC:
General: The regular Non-AC buses with a blue-white colour scheme.
Samartha: Green Coloured newly bought buses replacing the older ones.
Suvarna: Similar fare to ordinary buses serving important feeder routes, painted in red or green/white scheme. Now merged with the regular ones with blue-white colour.
BIG 10: Suvarna class buses with special green and bottle green livery plying on 12 major corridors towards the central commercial district. These buses are numbered with a G prefix. Now same livery as the general ones.
BIG Circle: Suvarna class buses with special white colored BIG Circle livery. These buses ply on inner and outer ring roads. Buses are numbered with a C prefix or a K prefix. Now same livery as the general ones.
Atal Sarige: Low fare buses painted with Indian tri-colour livery.
Vajra: Air conditioned Volvo buses painted in blue livery running on important routes serving the IT companies and major residential areas.
Vayu Vajra: Blue coloured Volvo buses operated in 12 routes connecting to Kempegowda International Airport. Free Wi-Fi access is provided to the commuters in these buses.
Marcopolo AC and Corona AC: Air conditioned buses with lower fare than Vajra services plying on select routes.
Metro Feeder: Special buses running on 18 routes as feeder network to the Metro stations
Hop On Hop Off: This service was introduced for sightseeing in Bengaluru. It covers a route connecting about twenty landmarks of great historic, religious and scientific significance.
BMTC has also introduced Mercedes Benz buses on a trial basis. BMTC has also introduced buses powered by solar energy on trial basis in Bengaluru. The BMTC announced that it would acquire 150 electric buses by September 2017. The project will be funded by the Union Government's Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles scheme of National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020.
Major bus stations
BMTC has 34 bus stations across the city and the 3 major bus stations are located at:
BMTC unveiled a smart card for its bus services for the first time in June 2016. The company introduced smart cards on trial-basis on BMTC Bus No. 335 operating between Majestic and Kadugodi bus stations in March 2017. Apart from serving as an identification document, the smart cards can be used to purchase bus tickets and also swiped at point-of-sale enabled merchant establishments. The card costs and can be recharged for up to. Recharges higher than 10,000 require the customer to provide identification. According to Axis Bank, the BMTC's partner in the project, the smart card is India's "first open loop EMV contactless smart card". The cards "open-loop" structure allows other agencies to integrate their smart card schemes by adopting the standards of the BMTC smart card.
Bus Day
Introduced on 4 February 2010, Bus Day is an event calling all the citizens of Bangalore to use public transport. The idea behind Bus Day is to observe the changes which can be brought in the city in trying to respect environment, traffic situation, health of individuals perception. The 4th of every month is observed as a "Bus Day".
Bus Priority Lane
BMTC along with BTP initiated he Bus Lanes in Outer Ring Road, bus lanes give priority to buses, cutting down on journey times where roads are congested with other traffic especially private cars and increasing the reliability of buses. The introduction of bus lanes can significantly assist in the reduction of air pollution due to individual cars and traffic pile up because of cars.
To benefit the commuters and promote the usage of public transportation, the BMTC launched its Intelligent Transport System on 25 May 2016. Under this project, BMTC buses were equipped with GPS in a phased manner which would transmit the location of the bus to the ITS control room. A mobile app was launched on the android platform which was made available in two languages, English and Kannada. The app provides information about bus routes and bus stops. Real time location of buses on a particular route can also be tracked, which requires the users to switch on the GPS on their device. By early 2017, BMTC would be introducing prepaid smart cards for commuting, which would eliminate the need to pay the exact amount of change.
