Intra-layout buses: A novel way to boost public transport in Bengaluru Premium

Feeder bus service in Bengaluru's HSR Layout revolutionizes public transport with local, reliable, and sustainable operations every 10 minutes.

Ten Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) bus services operating at 10-minute intervals in a closed loop along a well-planned route network, ferrying over a lakh commuters every month — this unique feeder bus service in the city’s HSR Layout has the potential to dramatically alter the way we think of public transport: Local, reliable, planned, and sustainable. Can this intra-layout concept be scaled up?

In August, this system completed its first year, stamping a rare success for BMTC and public transport in general. Operating from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., the service covers all seven HSR Layout sectors along a route length of 8.6 km, with the ticket priced at ₹10. Today, an estimated 5,000 passengers take this feeder bus service every day, including women who are ferried free under the Shakti scheme.

Despite challenges such as the use of big buses on roads with tight turning radius, the system has largely worked. But the big question remains: Can this be replicated in other similar residential layouts spread across the city? The HSR Citizen Forum and the HSR Cyclists group, who struggled hard to activate the project over the last four years, are convinced that it definitely can.

But there are conditions. Launched in 2020 under the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT)’s Sustainable Mobility Accord (SuMA), the HSR project could not have taken off without intense research, data collection and analysis, massive publicity campaigns and robust citizen participation. Government agencies such as DULT, BMTC, BBMP, citizens and activist volunteers had to coordinate and drive the action collectively.

“The learnings have been excellent in the way the structured project has been executed. It is possible to do this in other layouts if they follow a similar approach in terms of three years of a stepwise journey. Active citizen engagement from the locality is the secret recipe for success,” says Shashidhara K., founder of the HSR Cyclists group.

Citizens, he points out, know the pain points, the traffic jam areas, the turning radius at junctions, and the demand and supply. “They can sit together with the other stakeholders and design whole loops and decide on the types of buses. Then a trial run can be done for three months, loops readjusted if required,” he explains.

Lack of adequate buses, bus stops, low frequency and narrow local roads have left lakhs of Bengalureans to turn to either personal vehicles or expensive autorickshaws and cab rides for local commute. The HSR project has shown how a well-crafted feeder service with predictable schedules can make a big difference. But this did not happen in an instant.