The Times of India              03.09.2013

Nashik to get 25 new buses under JNNURM scheme

NASHIK: The city will soon get the first set of 25 new buses under the central government's Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renovation Mission (JNNURM) scheme from its total quota of 200 buses, which have been allotted to the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), Nashik division.

"The MSRTC is due for a new set of JNNURM buses, and as per discussions held between the MSRTC vice-chairman and managing director, Deepak Kapoor, and the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) commissioner, Sanjay Khandare, the first set of 25 buses will hit the city streets very soon. The rest of 175 buses will follow suit," a senior official from MSRTC, Nashik said.

Nashik city, with a population of 17 lakh people today, requires 680 buses for public transport - given the norm of 40 buses for a population of one lakh people. However, there are only 235 buses available and at any given movement, 190 run on the streets, with the remaining buses kept ready for emergencies. The buses cover more than 42,000 km in the city on a daily basis, transporting over 4 lakh people. The remaining of the city's population travels by other modes of transport - private and public. A large number of areas in the city are still out of reach of the MSRTC buses.

According to the officials, the MSRTC is willing to add new buses to its fleet, but faces the problem of insufficient parking space to accommodate all its buses during the night time. The MSRTC is also toying with the idea of parking its buses at the Nimani bus stand but fears thefts and misuse of the parked buses by anti-social elements during night hours. "We do not have a provision of setting up security and hence there is danger involved", is the excuse that senior MSRTC officials have been giving for not adding new buses to the existing fleet.

"There is hardly any space to accommodate the buses in the current areas. Even then, our central office has decided to take in 25 new JNNURM buses. We have got the funds for construction of the Nashik Road depot. Once that is done, within a period of 12 months, we will be able to accommodate more than 100 buses," the official said.

Under the JNNURM scheme, the central government has given buses to the municipal corporations for strengthening the mass transport system. The MSRTC, Nashik division received the last set of 100 buses from the Centre under the scheme in 2010. The buses were introduced on the city roads in a rally on May 1, 2010.