In the red: Contractors hold keys to AMTS ‘lal buses’
Updated: Apr 11th, 2024
If you’ve ever been out on a city road, you’ve seen a red Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service (AMTS) bus–once billed as Amdavad’s answer to London’s iconic buses. What you may not know, however, is that the city does not operate any of these ‘lal buses’ today.
At its peak, the 77-year-old service catered to 3.97 crore riders and earned ₹125 crore in revenue.
However, it has been struggling in recent years, led by a consistent fall in ridership. Staff shortages and rising operational costs have also played a major role, suggest media reports. Over the past 22 years, AMTS has taken loans of ₹4,223 crore, just to sustain city bus operations.
Today, the entire lal bus fleet, which some reports put at 700 buses along 149 routes, is run entirely by contractors.
Privatisation of these buses began in 2005–06. At this time, media reports estimate the AMTS fleet at 450 vehicles, with an average daily ridership of 3.5 lakh. The fleet size rose in the following years but, without a matching increase in staff, it later fell.
CNG and minibuses were the first to go to private contractors, in 2018. Operations for as many as 126 buses were privatized in 2018–19. Contractors took over operations for another 127 in 2019–20 and 2020–21, 127 in 2022–23 and 205 in 2022–23.
By 2021–22, the service was catering just 3.75 crore riders, and drawing in a revenue of ₹78.45 crore in 2022–23.
While AMTS was set up as an autonomous body in 1940, it continues to be managed by the Amdavad Municipal Corporation.
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