Bengaluru: Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy on Monday sought the Centre's immediate intervention over the \"poor performance\" of electric buses leased by the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC).

Addressing a press conference, he said the 1,644 e-buses in the corporation's fleet were facing multiple issues and giving it a \"bad name\".

He cited frequent technical failures, battery-related breakdowns, increasing accidents, poor maintenance, inadequate driver training, shortage of buses and drivers and repeated driver strikes.

To cut costs, he said, operators were appointing only 1.9 to 2.0 staff per bus instead of the prescribed 2.3. Since 2023–24, e-buses have been involved in 70 accidents, including 24 fatal ones.

\"These buses carry BMTC branding but the corporation

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