The Hindu 01.12.2010
BMTC, bus-makers lock horns
Anil Kumar Sastry
| Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland seek refund of penalty to participate in tender process |
BANGALORE: The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has not procured even one new bus to replace its aging vehicles as well as to augment its fleet strength since March after the two major suppliers — Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland — decided not to participate in the tender process till the corporation refunds about Rs. 20 crore penalty levied on them.
BMTC levied about Rs. 28.5-crore penalty — Rs. 25 crore on Tata and Rs. 3.5 crore on Ashok Leyland — for the delay in supply of fully built buses, funded under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), as well as for defects in the buses supplied. The corporation has already refunded about Rs. 6-crore penalty to Tata, even as both the manufacturers have been demanding complete refund.
Meanwhile, the corporation invited tenders for procurement of 500 fully built buses and 300 chassis for 2010-11.
However, both manufacturers informed BMTC that they would not participate in the process till the refund issue was settled, corporation Managing Director Syed Zameer Pasha informed the board of directors in one of their meetings.
Of the 800 buses proposed for acquisition this year, 400 each were meant for replacing aged buses and for augmenting the existing fleet. BMTC, which has a fleet of about 6,000 buses, has plans to augment the numbers to 10,000 in the next five years to cater to the growing demand. According to sources, non-induction of new buses on time has seriously crippled the corporation's plans, including introduction of new routes and increasing the frequency of services on the existing routes that have high commuter density.
Mr. Pasha told The Hindu that the stalemate continues.
As Tata and Ashok Leyland are the two major bus-makers in the country, BMTC too is in a bind over the issue.
He said he would have to take a bold decision shortly on the contentious refund issue and hoped that the issue would be resolved soon.
Sources in the transport industry, however, felt that the bus-makers could not take the corporation for a ride as BMTC alone procured about 1,000 buses every year. All the four transport corporations in the State buy about 3,000 buses every year.
Either BMTC can complain to the Association of Road Transport Undertakings (ASRTU), an umbrella organisation of State road transport corporations, to negotiate the issue or to the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission or to the newly commissioned Competition Commission of India.
ASRTU Vice-Chairman and KSRTC Managing Director Gaurav Gupta said that the attitude of the bus-makers was deplorable. However, there appeared to be communication gap between them and the BMTC which had to be sorted out across the table, he said. So far, the issue had not been referred to ASRTU, Mr. Gupta added.
