The Municipal Corporation is all set to introduce new Red and Green coloured Star buses in the city from May this year. According to sources, orders for 225 new buses have been placed and few buses have already arrived and are under trials late in the night. These buses could be seen on test drives on Kolar Road during late night-hours as the traffic density turns low.

According to plans, these busses would commence their commercial plying in the first week of May. If implementation is carried out in accordance to the plans, all the ordered buses would be delivered by the end of April 2010.

Sources informed that 60 per cent of the funding of these buses comes from the Central Government, 30 per cent contribution from the state government, while the remaining 10 per cent would be added by the Municipal Corporation. The corporation would further lease these buses out to private operators using bank credits for maintenance and other expenses.

These buses would ply on ten specific routes that have already been identified. Presently, Magic and mini buses are plying on these routes, but once these new buses are introduced, old Magic vans and mini buses would be withdrawn and Star buses introduced. The old buses would be allotted alternative routes to ply.


Options open for bus stand management
The Bus Stand Maintenance Committee set up by the state government has left with three options open for the job. The committee has now worked at on the formula that leaves room for another bus stand in the city.

According to the committee, the maintenance work could be carried out by it directly on sub-leasing it to the State Transport Corporation or finally hand it over to the Local Bodies across the state.

The committee has also suggested that the management be handed over to public-private partnership and create a corpus fund in order to manage activities. Any of the finalised option, would finally mean that all activities needed for operating bus stands, including traffic, cleanliness of the premises, civic amenities for commuters etc, would be managed by the agency.

The committee would also ensure efficient movement of busses in all destinations looking to the optimum passenger traffic on the different routes.