Cities on the fast track with BRTS

The Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS), under which dedicated service lanes are provided for cars, buses, autos and slow vehicles, is slowly catching on in cities all over the country.

After the first BRTS system was launched in Indore earlier this year, Pune, Bangalore and Ahmedabad have also sought a similar service.

According to officials in the urban development ministry, while Bangalore has submitted its feasibility study report, Ahmedabad has also submitted a proposal. Pune has been asked by the ministry to make some changes in its project report.

Delhi had already announced in its Budget last year that it would have the BRTS system on a 14.6-km stretch between Ambedkarnagar and Delhi Gate at a cost of Rs 140 crore.

The BRTS system involves redesigning roads and leaving dedicated service lanes for every kind of vehicle. Under the BRTS, the existing fleet of buses will be replaced with hi-tech buses.

This multi-lane road transport system promises to cut down accident rate drastically as it spares no room for conflicting traffic caused by movement of slow and fast vehicles on the same lane.

The cost per km for running a BRTS system is said to be between Rs 5 crore and Rs 10 crore, which makes it one of the cheapest among various modes of transportation systems. BRTS is recommended for smaller cities which have constraints of funds.

Officials in the Union ministry say the Indore project has been a runaway success as the Indore Municipal Corporation had to shell out only a fraction of the project cost to run the buses.

"Services such as issuing passes, running of buses have been outsourced bringing down capital costs to a large extent," an official said.