Mini air-conditioned (AC) buses will be deployed to areas within a 5-km radius of all metro stations.

Transport Minister Byrathi Suresh made the announcement after holding a meeting with senior officials of the Transport Department, KSRTC and BMTC at Vidhana Soudha on Tuesday.

A release said that of the 4,500 electric buses being provided to BMTC under the Central government’s PM E-DRIVE scheme, the Minister instructed that 200 mini air-conditioned (AC) buses be used to provide connectivity within a 5-km radius of all metro stations.

The buses will connect residential areas in the farthest parts of the city to metro stations, making travel more convenient for Bengaluru residents, it added.

The Minister also said BMTC will provide more air-conditioned buses to IT and BT companies in Bengaluru to reduce the use of private vehicles by their employees. He said officials have been instructed to hold discussions with the companies in this regard.

Namma BMTC app for aggregators 

He also announced that the ‘Namma BMTC Mobile App 2.0’ will be made available to commercial passenger vehicles operated through apps such as Ola, Uber and others. Through this, passengers travelling in Ola and Uber vehicles will be able to easily obtain information about BMTC buses that operate to the destinations where they get off, the release said.

The release also stated that he issued instructions officials to take necessary measures to prevent revenue leakage in government-owned transport corporations, including BMTC, and gave clear directions to curb unnecessary expenditure.

The Tamil Nadu government has been continuously urging the Union government to approve the Coimbatore and Madurai Metro Rail projects, Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu said on Tuesday.

In his Interim Budget speech, he said that when the State requested the Centre’s approval of the detailed project reports (DPRs) for the two projects, the Union government returned the proposals, stating that they were not approved since the populations of Coimbatore and  Madurai were less than 20 lakh. 

The Minister said the State government had given in-principle approval for three extension projects — Chennai airport to Kilambakkam,  Koyambedu to Pattabiram, and Poonamallee to Sunguvarchathiram — and recommended them to the Union government for approval and financial assistance. The administrative sanction for the preliminary work was also given, he added.

The work on developing a bus terminal with an integrated multi-modal transport hub and an office complex on the site of the Broadway bus stand was under way at an estimated cost of ₹823 crore. He said the Chennai Metro Rail Phase II project was progressing well.