Transport Minister CP Singh must be pitching to the Volvo bus operators in Mumbai on Saturday last week wooing them to come to Jharkhand and operate luxury inter-State bus services from Jharkhand, but pathetic situations at all three important bus stands in the capital city appear to be mocking his willingness to provide best road transport services from State. Even a Transport Department officials admitted on Sunday that bus stands needed to go through complete face-lift before any serious operator could think of operating luxury buses at least from Ranchi.
“The Bus Stand near Main Road Flyover which allows operation of some 30 Air-conditioned (AC) buses everyday is in good condition. But if is not in a position of getting its capacity doubled if some basic amenities are not strengthened further. As far as Khadgadha Bus Stand and ITI Bus Stand are concerned, they are managed by the Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) and they know better what they have to do with them. But it is true that there is lot more to be done, and we are doing them too, to get more serious operators in the business,” said District Transport Officer (DTO) Nagendra Paswan on Sunday. Notably, the Stand was found mud-filled and water-logged on the day.
After suspension of couple of trains last month after closure of Dhanbad-Chandrapura stretch of Indian Railways, traffic has exponentially surged on Khadgadha Bus Stand which is also burdened with buses bound to Deoghar in the month of Sawan these days. But theA view of waterlogged Government bus stand nearc amenities at Stand leaves no desire in any of the passenger for repeat journey.
“You can see closed ticket counters and enquiry counters. The stand has turned safe haven for drug addicts, pick-pockets and snatchers. Do you think anyone would come here out of joy to catch a bus,” said a conductor of a bus bound for Patna on Sunday.
As far as ITI Bus Stand is concerned, this has remained one of the most pathetic city bus stands in State. Interestingly, RMC had already sent a project for renovation of ITI bus stand to Urban Development Department, only to get the proposal buried somewhere.
“See, this is service related business. If your service is not good, you will not get repeated customers. I believe government must think of upgrading infrastructure and facilities first. If that part is fulfilled, the government will not have to go anywhere to attract service providers. They will automatically come here. If you are not able to provide better facilities to ordinary passengers, how can you expect high-end passengers of luxury buses to come here,” said a bus operator and office bearer of Jharkhand Bus Owners Association.
