Urban News

Indian Express     13.09.2010

BEST buys buses, hasn’t enough space to park them

Prashant Rangnekar Tags : BEST, buses Posted: Mon Sep 13 2010, 05:22 hrs

Sunil Ganacharya, member of the BEST committee, raised the matter about the shortage of space. “Vikhroli depot has a capacity for 85-90 buses but every night 120 buses are parked there. The BEST administration did not think twice about parking while procuring 1,000 buses,” he said.

“We are working on it and we have plans to create more parking for these additional buses,” said O P Gupta, BEST general manager, not wishing to disclose details about the plan. BEST committee members said drivers have complained that the depots are so crammed at night that they find it difficult to drive out in the morning.

A senior BEST official added the administration plans to convert its bus termini into parking spots at night. “There are several termini, such as that outside CST, around the city,” the official said. BEST is also exploring the possibility of expanding the parking capacity of some depots.

The Thane Municipal Transport and Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport, the other two major transport bodies in the MMR, are also facing a similar space crunch as they increase the size of their fleets.

The Pioneer  02.09.2010

Parvinder Bhatia | Jamshedpur

The Steel City’s wait for the city bus service is over. Swanky JNNURM buses rolled out on the streets at a function held at Gopal Maidan, Bistupur on Wednesday. It was flagged-off by urban development department additional secretary Ravindra Kumar Agarwal under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

With this Jamshedpur became the third city after Ranchi and Dhanbad to receive the services of swanky buses. According to information, 50 buses have been allotted to the city. The Swaraj Mazda built buses with 29 seating capacity are passenger-friendly and environment-friendly.

They have fast pickup, more pulling capacity, comfortable seating pattern, and more leg space for sitting passengers, more space for mobility inside the bus, fashionable look and digital destination boards.

The buses will run under the areas of Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee, Mango Notified Area Committee, Jugsalai Municipality and Adityapur Municipal Corporation.

As per agreement Sainik Kalyan Board will provide services of 50 drivers and 50 conductors and six security guards for the depot at Baridih.

Talking to the newsmen, Agarwal said that the long wait of the people of the city has come to end. Buses are a vital mode of public transportation and this service will boost the public transport system.

Officials of Jharkhand Tourism Development Corporation (JTDC), which will operate the fleet, said the city has received 30 buses as of now and rest 20 will arrive soon.

Siddharth Tripathy, managing director, JTDC, said that the objective of JNNURM is to ensure integrated development of urban infrastructure and services, secure effective linkages between asset creation and management and to ensure adequate investment of funds to address deficiencies in the urban infrastructure. It lays particular emphasis on providing basic services to the urban poor.

When questioned over Jamshedpur Utilities and Services Company (Jusco) declination to run the service in the city, Tripathy said that the company back out from the bid after studying the pros and cons of the project.

“The buses will run through eight routes and depending on the distance, fares have been kept between `3 and `15,” noted an official.