What is BS III?

What is BS III?

Those of us who have travelled recently in Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC), would have seen the following on the buses painted new:

1. BS III
2. Yellow Line
3. Metro Line
4. White Line
5. Orange Line
6. Blue Line

Some one just asked me if there is some defined circular or official note on what these stands for. Today being weekend, I just thought I would do a little homework on these and share with the other readers as well. Here are the notes on the topic.

BSIII is one of the emission norms that is currently adopted in India. It is actually the amount of gasoline and other ingredients that are consumed and the pollution control parameter. You can check out more about Emission Standards from this wiki page.

The other things that are shown in the bullet points are the type of new buses introduced by the transport corporation in Chennai and in other cities of Tamil Nadu. Here are the explanations for the same, as I gathered info on it:

1. Blue Line. It is basically a deluxe bus designated as Limited Stop Service (LSS).
2. Yellow Line. It is an express (fast) bus and is also a deluxe service.
3. Orange Line. It is an LSS service along with deluxe facilites besides being equipped with automatic doors and featuring low floors.
4. White Line. It is basically a long distance service featuring with low floor and automatic door facilities.
5. The Metro Line is currently a very new type of bus recently introduced in the fleet serving within the city limits and connecting the suburban areas.

MTC is now high-tech and getting more tech-savvy. You can check out more information about the transport corporation, its fleet strength and future plans from their website at http://www.mtcbus.org/. What's more! You can send in your queries or complaints or suggestions to mtc_chennai (at) vsnl.net.