Fleet and services
BMTC operates several branded categories of service, distinguished by livery, vehicle type and fare class.
Suburban and intercity expansion
From early 2026, BMTC began extending Vajra Vistara AC services beyond its traditional 25 km operating radius, following discussions with the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, which otherwise holds intercity route rights. Services to Ramanagara and Kanakapura were launched in March 2026, followed by Channapatna in May 2026 and a route to Tumakuru — described by BMTC officials as its longest Vajra Vistara route to date — later the same month, running 54 daily trips with a base fare of ₹120. BMTC officials said the routes have limited stops, mostly within Bengaluru city limits, so as not to compete directly with KSRTC's existing non-AC intercity services.
Fleet electrification
BMTC has expanded its electric fleet largely through gross-cost contracts (GCC), under which private operators own and maintain the buses while BMTC pays a per-kilometre rate, allowing electrification without large upfront capital outlay. By September 2025 the electric segment stood at more than 1,500 buses — roughly one in five vehicles in the fleet — and trade-press reporting citing The Times of India indicated that daily service had by then not only recovered from its pandemic-era decline but exceeded pre-pandemic scheduling on several corridors, with the fleet covering about 61,000 trips and 1.19 million kilometres a day. Tata Motors delivered 148 electric buses to BMTC in mid-2025 as part of this expansion, manufactured at its Dharwad plant and leased under the GCC model at a reported rate of around ₹41 per kilometre, with further AC electric buses ordered from other manufacturers to raise the electric fleet toward roughly 1,800 vehicles by the end of 2025. In October 2025, Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy put the fleet at 7,067 buses, including 1,799 electric, and rejected calls from some public figures to privatise BMTC, arguing that doing so would prioritise profit over public service.
Former services
Parisara Vahini/Parisara Snehi: light blue-and-white or dark blue-and-white livery, with grey and red graphics on some variants. Merged with Bengaluru Sarige.
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Janti Vahana: non-AC vestibule buses with light blue-and-white or dark blue-and-white liveries. Now defunct.
Suvarna: non-AC buses with a green or orange livery, similar in fare to Jana Sarige buses, serving feeder routes. Merged with Bengaluru Sarige, though some buses retain the older colours.
Samartha/BIG Trunk: non-AC buses with a green-and-black livery serving trunk routes from downtown to the suburbs. Merged with Bengaluru Sarige.
Nera Sarige/BIG 10: non-AC buses with a green-and-bottle-green livery serving twelve major corridors into the central business district, numbered with a 'G' prefix. Merged with Bengaluru Sarige.
Samvrutha/BIG Circle: non-AC buses with a white "BIG Circle" livery that plied Bangalore's Inner and Outer Ring Roads, numbered with a 'C' or 'K' prefix. Merged with Bengaluru Sarige.
Atal Sarige: a low-fare, non-AC service with an Indian tricolour livery, now defunct.
Pushpak Sarige/Janapriya Vahini/Pushpak Plus: non-AC buses with a beige-and-white livery, operated with a driver-cum-conductor. Discontinued; single-door buses were converted to double-door ones.
Marcopolo AC, UD AC and Corona AC: services with a white or light blue livery. Marcopolo buses have been withdrawn; some Corona buses have been rebranded as Vajra.
Nimbus: Bengaluru Sarige and Vajra buses that plied dedicated bus-lane corridors. The only such service, between Central Silk Board Junction and Krishnarajapura, was withdrawn and converted to regular Bengaluru Sarige service after the bus lane was closed for Namma Metro Blue Line construction on the Outer Ring Road.
Samparka: non-AC mini-bus services built on Ashok Leyland and Tata mini urban chassis, with an orange livery, connecting neighbourhoods to the nearest bus station over short distances. Merged with Bengaluru Sarige.
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 services retain their original numbering and function despite these branding changes.
Technology and digital services
BMTC launched an Intelligent Transport System (ITS) on 25 May 2016, fitting buses with GPS devices in a phased manner to transmit live location data to an ITS control room. On 20 May 2023, BMTC launched a bilingual (English and Kannada) mobile app, Namma BMTC, on Android and iOS, providing route and stop information along with real-time bus tracking and an SOS feature that alerts the nearest police station in emergencies. From 6 April 2022, bus passes began to be issued through the TUMMOC mobile app, with passengers scanning a QR code on board to verify a pass. BMTC also began accepting UPI ticket payments intermittently from 2022, launching the facility fully in June 2023, with QR codes displayed on board or with conductors for passengers to scan and pay.
National Common Mobility Card
BMTC unveiled a smart card for its bus services for the first time in June 2016 and introduced it on a trial basis on Bus No. 335, operating between Majestic and Kadugodi bus stations, in March 2017. Besides serving as an identification document, the card could be used to purchase bus tickets and be swiped at point-of-sale (POS)-enabled merchant establishments; it cost ₹5 (5.2¢ US) and could be recharged up to ₹10,000 (US$100), with higher recharges requiring identification. According to Axis Bank, BMTC's partner in the project, the card was India's first open-loop EMV contactless smart card. The scheme was eventually discontinued in favour of integration with the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC), which is also used by Namma Metro and is planned for the Bengaluru Suburban Railway, intended to allow seamless travel across the city's transit modes.
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