The Hindu 13.12.2010
Mobility card for seamless travel soon
Staff Reporter
| BMTC to introduce intelligent transport system featuring GPS |
Electronic ticketing machine also in the offing
Lions Club organises ‘Lifeline – Road Safety'
— Photo K. Murali Kumar
FELICITATION:BMTC drivers who were honoured by Lions Clubs International in Bangalore
BANGALORE: Common mobility card, offering seamless travel to Bangaloreans, will be in place within eight months in the city, according to Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) Managing Director Syed Zameer Pasha.
Along with the card, intelligent transport system, featuring global positioning system (GPS) and electronic ticketing machine will be introduced, Mr. Pasha told members of Lions Club who had gathered at the Meet of Region II, which had the theme, “Lifeline – Road Safety”, here on Sunday.
The intelligent transport system will help the corporation to streamline its operations and offer more facilities to passengers, he said. BMTC will soon enter into a memorandum of understanding with IL & FS Trust Company Ltd. (ITCL), a subsidiary of Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd., promoted by Unit Trust of India, Housing Development Finance Corporation and Central Bank of India.
The corporation is also working towards finalising the Bus Rapid Transit System along with the Bangalore Development Authority and the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike. The BDA has agreed to offer one lane each on all its flyovers and elevated roads and the BBMP will provide the space carved out of widening of roads to BMTC buses, Mr. Pasha said. It is not for “movement of vehicles” but for “movement of people” as each bus is equal to 20 cars in terms of number of passengers transported.
In his keynote address, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic and Security) Praveen Sood said road widening is not at all the solution for the increasing traffic problem in Bangalore. As soon as the road is widened and more flyovers are built, the space is occupied by more number of vehicles.
The solution lies in providing a good public transport system. Mumbai, with a population of 15 million, has just 2 million private vehicles whereas Bangalore with a population of 8 million has 4 million private vehicles, he pointed out. Mumbai's success is only due to the presence of a robust public transport system, Mr. Sood noted.
BMTC, Mr. Sood said, has been doing excellent job within its limitations and constraints.
Even Bangalore Metro, when it becomes fully operations, might not be able to solve the traffic problems in Bangalore, if people keep on buying and using private vehicles ignoring public transport system, Mr. Sood cautioned.
Lions Region II chairperson R.A. Garg presided. On the occasion, the Lions organisations felicitated 25 BMTC drivers who had received the Chief Minister's gold medals for accident-free driving. They are Balaraju, Chandraraju, Sabiulla, Krishnappa, Narayanappa, Mohammed Shaik, Mohammed Peer, Kenchanna, Hanumanthaiah, Anjanappa, Dasharahta, C. Arumugam, Rangaswamy, Srinivas Iyer, Jayaraju, Krishnappa, Sridharmurthy, Suresh Rao, Manjunath, Venkatachari, Balaiah, Bahadur, Siddappa, Reddappa, Changamaraju, Balaraju and Purushothamma.
Lions Club donated two water coolers and one coffee vending machine to BMTC.
