Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation

Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation, formerly Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), is a state-owned public road transport corporation in the Indian city of Bangalore. It is wholly owned by the Government of Karnataka. It serves the Bangalore Metropolitan Region. As of 28 September 2024, it has a fleet of 6340 vehicles.
Mysore Government Road Transport Department was inaugurated on 12 September 1948 with 120 buses. The transport department of The Mysore state administered it until 1961.
It was subsequently converted into an independent corporation under Section 3 of the Road Transport Corporation Act, 1950 on 1 August 1961, In 1961, after successfully converting into an independent corporation all assets and liabilities of MGRTD were transferred to Mysore State Road Transport Corporation.
On 1 October 1961, Bangalore Transport Service was merged with it.
On 1 November 1973, the Mysore state was renamed as Karnataka thus, renaming it Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation.
This left the corporation to serve the Southern part of Karnataka.
Note: The Parisara Vahini/Parisara Snehi, Suvarna Sarige, Samartha Sarige/BIG Trunk, Nera Sarige/BIG 10, Samvrutha Sarige/BIG Circle, Metro Feeder, Nimbus and Samparka still retain the same numbering and function despite the change in branding.
BMTC unveiled a smart card for its bus services for the first time in June 2016. The company introduced smart cards on trial-basis on BMTC Bus No. 335 operating between Majestic and Kadugodi bus stations in March 2017. Apart from serving as an identification document, the smart cards can be used to purchase bus tickets and also swiped at point-of-sale (POS) enabled merchant establishments. The card costs ₹5 (5.8¢ US) and can be recharged for up to ₹10,000 (US$120). Recharges higher than ₹10,000 require the customer to provide identification. According to Axis Bank, the BMTC's partner in the project, the smart card is India's "first open loop EMV contactless smart card". The cards "open-loop" structure allows other agencies to integrate their smart card schemes by adopting the standards of the BMTC smart card. This scheme was finally dropped and integration with National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) is already under process. City's Namma Metro is already using NCMC and Bengaluru Suburban Railway will also be using it in future when the system is completed so therefore, one will be used to travel seamlessly across different transit modes in the city and its suburbs.
Introduced on 4 February 2010, Bus Day is an event calling all the citizens of Bangalore to use public transport. The idea behind Bus Day is to observe the changes which can be brought in the city in trying to respect environment, traffic situation, health of individuals perception. The 4th of every month is observed as a "Bus Day".
BMTC along with BTP initiated the bus lanes between Central Silk Board Junction and Tin Factory Junction on Outer Ring Road branded as Nimbus. Bus lanes give priority to buses, cutting down on journey times where roads are congested with other traffic especially private cars and increasing the reliability of buses. The introduction of bus lanes can significantly assist in the reduction of air pollution due to individual cars and traffic pile up because of cars. Currently, the bus lane has been removed due to reduction in road width due to the ongoing work on Namma Metro's Blue Line on the median.
To benefit the commuters and promote the usage of public transportation, the BMTC launched its Intelligent Transport System (ITS) on 25 May 2016. Under this project, BMTC buses were equipped with GPS in a phased manner which would transmit the location of the bus to the ITS control room. On 20 May 2023, A mobile app called Namma BMTC was launched on the android and iOS platform which was made available in two languages, English and Kannada. The app provides information about bus routes and bus stops. Real time location of buses on a particular route can also be tracked, which requires the users to switch on the GPS on their device. In 2017, BMTC would be introduced prepaid smart cards for commuting, which eliminated the need to pay the exact amount of change, this was not introduced widely, instead NCMC cards are proposed to be released as an open loop payment system. On 6 April 2022, Bus Passes started to be issued on TUMMOC mobile app, passengers have to scan the QR code in the bus to verify the pass bought on the app. In 2022, BMTC has also started to accept ticket payments using UPI in a ON and OFF manner, finally launching it properly in June 2023. A QR code card is either stuck in the bus or with the bus conductor, passengers can scan and pay for tickets.
An app named "Namma BMTC" launched in 2023 that allows users to track buses in real time, check schedules, plan journeys and calculate fare between stages. The app also includes an SOS feature for women to use in case of emergencies by alerting any nearby police station.