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BENGALURU: The cash-strapped Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has decided to induct 1,500 buses on lease basis.

BMTC on Monday floated a tender to select a service provider for procurement, operation and maintenance of non-AC diesel buses on gross cost contract (lease model). The tender is likely to be finalised by the end of April.

"We’ll allocate routes and pay the selected firm on a per-km basis. They will look after operation, maintenance and also deploy drivers. We’ll provide conductors for ticket collection. This will reduce the operational costs as operating buses on lease will be economical compared to running and maintaining our own fleet," said a senior official.

In the 2017-18 state budget, there was a plan to induct 1,500 diesel buses under the PPP model, but it didn’t take off. Sources said the state government in the 2017-18 budget announced purchase of 3,000 buses, including 1,500 on purchase model and remaining on lease. Of the 1,500 buses on purchase model, BMTC has purchased 857 so far and 643 are in final stages of issuing work orders.

For the 1,500 on lease model, the corporation has now called the tender. "This was delayed due to various reasons, including Covid-19 and delay in getting BMTC board approval, but now there is a need to induct more buses to ensure social distancing," said an official. Of the 1,268 old buses, the corporation scrapped only 155 so far. "We’ll scrap those old buses once we induct new ones," he added.

However, BMTC employees have been opposing the move to lease buses as they fear it could be part of privatisation plan. The move is also significant since the transport employees are planning an indefinite strike from April 7.

While the utility had received poor response for its plan to lease electric buses, it is hoping for a better participation for diesel buses. Sources said BMTC’s move to induct buses under the lease model in the past had failed. The corporation had hired non-AC buses from more than 60 contractors between 1997 and 2005, but they weren’t maintained well and many of them were lying in depots.

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had in the recent budget allocated Rs 18,000 crore for a new scheme to augment public bus transport across the country. "It will facilitate deployment of innovative PPP models to enable private players to finance, acquire, operate and maintain over 20,000 buses," she had said.

Chief minister BS Yediyurappa had said the state’s public transport system would be strengthened by utilising maximum benefit of this project. Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya recently advocated allowing private bus operators in the city.