The Karnataka Government has asked both Tata Motors and Brazil’s Marcopolo to refund an amount of INR 30 crores paid for purchase of Marcopolo buses.
BMTC (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation) and KSRTC (Karnataka State Road Corporation) have a total of 142 Tata Marcopolo buses inducted under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) scheme – Rs 16 crore grant came from Union Govt., and Rs 14 crore were granted by state government.
These buses are nothing but fuel guzzlers (delivering 1.4 kmpl mileage), are noisy and totally underperform where auto emissions are concerned, says R Ramalinga Reddy, Transport Minister, Karnataka Government. It is for these reasons that the buses have been suspended from service following decisions taken by the State Cabinet.
Other complaints emerged which include emission of dark smoke, engine noise and poor quality of air conditioning. To overcome a part of the problem, the BMTC even removed the ACs, thereby converting them to non-AC buses. This too was not enough to woo the customers back to these buses.
These buses were sold at INR 31 lakhs each, just one third of a Volvo bus in the segment. Tata Marcopolo buses performed well for the first few thousand kilometres, it is later that the problems started. Minister says that for every kilometer, the transport corporation was making a loss of Rs 27 on these buses.
If they continue plying theses buses, additional losses of Rs 60 crores will be registered; so its better to scrap them says the minister. He also adds that no one want to buy these buses, and thus they have no other alternative, but to scrap them.
Karnataka government has asked Tata Motors and Brazil’s Marcopolo to refund INR 30 crores paid to purchase these buses, or replace them with new one’s.
via ET Auto
