BMTC plans a new vendor for projects

BENGALURU: The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) is worried that almost all its initiatives will suffer a major setback as its original vendor Trimax IT Infrastructure and Services has run into financial trouble.

The corporation is now forced to hire a new vendor to carry forward its projects, like electric buses and smart card introduction.

BMTC sources told Deccan Chronicle that the delay is also because the managing directors have been changed frequently and that it has seen three IAS officers in the last three years. This affects the long-term vision of the corporation and political interference in its day-to-day affairs. The official said, “The main problem is frequent transfer of bosses and when the new officer comes in, he scraps an ongoing project and starts a new one. No ambitious proposal that improves the quality of the service for passengers, including online reservation in buses and bus tracking, has been implemented."

The BMTC had announced the launch of Intelligent Transport System (ITS), which promised a bouquet of facilities such as electronic ticketing, bus-tracking and a mobile app. But the project, which took off in 2016, hit a roadblock. Almost 60% of the buses have gone back to issuing paper tickets. While most of the buses have no GPS, the mobile app has become useless. The BMTC now plans to hire a new vendor to carry forward its projects and IT initiatives.