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-   -   City Buses of various STUs all over India (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/commercial-vehicles/73524-city-buses-various-stus-all-over-india-68.html)

I have been seeing these 'midi' buses even within the city for the past few days. I forgot the route numbers but they seem to be running on circular routes and named as 'Chakra Saarige' which means Circular Transport. I saw 2-3 routes near Rajarajeshwarinagar, Banashankari, Nagarbaavi.

Btw, why are they called as 'midi' buses? and what is the point of introducing these smaller buses on routes where the larger buses already ply?

BMTC has purchased a total 150 of them - and have called tenders for another 100 of them. They'd be running as "Feeder" buses for the new BIG Trunk services (the feeders would be called "Samparka"), they'll run as Metro Feeders (esp for the newly opened Peenya line) and as "Chakra" (Circular Feeder) services.

Probably BMTC intends to enter smaller roads with these buses.

They are called "Midi" because they aren't exactly "mini" buses - they fall into the IDV category, while Mini buses are LCVs and full size buses are HCVs.

For small intercity routes, frequency is very important. It is better to run midi bus at 15 minutes intervals, than running big bus at 30 minutes intervals. If the big bus is not full, the purchase price and operating expenses are less for midi buses. In addition to all these easy maneuverability with in citys crowded and narrow roads are another reason more and more citys go for midi buses now.

Categorisation of Midi and Mini is different and ICV and LCV is different.
Buses with seating capacity between 23 and 34 are called Midi buses . So within Midi bus segment, you have both ICV and LCV. In this case being Lynx 4900 its an ICV. But smaller capacity buses in Midi segment can still be LCV.

Problem is many states have their own definition of Mini buses and leads to confusion. Eg - TN where the 26 seater is actually a Midi bus but they call as Mini.

Do you know what happened to these Diesel-Hybrids?

And any idea which make the bus in this post is?

As of now, nothing has happened. They've called for tenders for the Diesel hybrids under JnNURM-2 now.

That is the Volvo - UD City bus. This model is in fray for JnNURM-2, AFAIK.

Currently Volvo - UD is not be available for JNnurm II, they may be available later part.

AL JanBus spotted testing in Kochi:









I thought the KSRTC would go for JanBus to fulfill the AC LF bus requirement, but the last I heard is that Volvo won the bid in that segment, and the non-AC LF buses would be from AL, probably a non-AC version of JanBus

Image credit: KSRTC FB page

JanBus did not quality for AC-LF for two reasons:
1. They called tenders for RE buses
2. They had a criteria that the supplier should have experience in selling and commissioning atleast 20 of them to STUs.

JanBus doesn't fit in either. I am not sure of non-AC LF, but AL has emerged as L1 in that tender.

Janbus(650mm) and Volvo(400mm premium) are in different segments. They cannot compete with each other under any circumstances to disqualify any one of them.Currently Volvo doesn't have any competition in premium segment.
Janbus was quoted only in 650mm floor height bus segment which obviously have both options of front and rear engines. But none of the competition who has only rear engines didn't qualify as they were costlier-in fact they didn't quote. But looking at the price anyway they were not cheaper.And as a info and to my knowledge, there is no underlining fact of selling minimum number of buses for jnnurm as almost the entire set of buses which will be supplied in Jnnurm2 are new.

The bus looks great, especially the side profile! What are the sand bags doing on the bus floor? Are they to simulate actual load conditions?

Why don't they come out with rear engined body-on-frame buses?
I think that's the most suitable configuration for India due to its ruggedness, better ground clearance and the possibility of changing the body. Front engined buses generate too much NVH for the occupants.

AFAIK, REs are not suitable for India - poor ventilation, poor mileage and poor operational economics are some reason why I say REs are not suitable for India.

The JanBus is a revolutionary concept which brings out a proper low floor front engine bus - which is regarded as the world's first.

Yes

RE body-on-frame buses are very much available. The RE buses from AL and TM are built on RE chassis (Panther/12M-RE, LPO1624RE/LPO1618RE respectively).

For non-AC application, RE buses cause even more discomfort than FE buses, as the passengers have to endure more or less the same noise as FE buses, as well as the heat.

Another reason STUs stay away from RE buses made by homegrown manufacturers is that their workshops find the buses difficult to maintain. I heard one mechanic quip that opening the engine compartment at the rear shows up a maze of fans and belts unlike the "tidy" engine compartment in a FE bus

Puducherry and Solapur have become two new cities to opt for Volvo 8400 city buses for public transport. With this development, the presence of Volvo in the high-performance city bus segment in India has expanded to 15 cities. More cities are likely to opt for Volvo city buses by the end of the year.

Link to Team-BHP News Article

The Volvo buses that went to Solapur and Calcutta - these pics were taken quite some time back when they were still in Bangalore.

The red one is to Solapur and the blue to Calcutta. Had seen the ones to Pondicherry as well, but couldn't click due to security restrictions.