Due to poor performance of Uttar Pradesh Roadways in providing bus services in Gautam Buddh Nagar district, Noida and Greater Noida authorities have decided to run buses on their own. They have enlisted the services of private companies for operating city buses. The authorities have floated a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for ‘complete mobility plan’. The SPV will have buses plying not 12 city routes where volume of daily commuters is more. The routes have been divided; two routes will be in Noida, four routes in Greater Noida and two routes between Noida and Greater Noida. Authorities have asked UP Roadways to run their buses from Gautam Buddh Nagar to other districts.
The authorities said they have decided to run 100 new buses and have demanded 150 buses from the Central Government under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) apart from buses taken from the Roadways. Initially 40 buses will ply within Noida, 30 within Greater Noida and 30 between both cities. The buses will connect Metro stations to various sectors, villages and bus terminals. An outer route on the lines of Delhi will also be selected for connecting the outskirts of the region. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between both authorities has also been approved during an earlier board meeting. Noida and Greater Noida will bear expenses in the ratio of 60:40.
According to authority officials, they had appointed an Urban Mass Transport Company (UMTC) as consultant which had submitted its report early this month and later an expression of interest by nine companies, including Cisco Transport Company of England and Prasanna Purple Mobility Solutions of France. The buses will be GPS enabled and their monitoring will be done from a control room.
Harish Verma, Additional CEO of Greater Noida Authority, said after going through the detailed report submitted by the consultant, it has been decided to introduce complete mobility across the region which will replace the buses of UP Roadways. “We have approved the MoU and hopefully buses under SPV will start plying by May,” said Verma in a Press conference.