The proposed City Bus Service between Brahmapur and three NAC towns Gopalpur, Chhatrapur and Hinjili has once again taken a back seat.
The much-awaited city bus service linking Brahmapur with the three NAC towns which was scheduled to begin in May has been further delayed by two more months to utter disappointment of the denizens of these urban areas.
The decision was taken at a meeting held at the Ganjam district Collectorate at Chhatrapur on Wednesday over which Collector Dr Krishan Kumar presided.
lack of coordination between the relevant agencies, forward planning and incompletion of groundwork have resulted in the delay in introduction of city bus service, sources said.
The Collector said the city bus service would be introduced between the four towns by the end of August for which the tender would be called from intending bus operators soon. The Collector has reportedly ordered finalisation of the tender by August 24.
The meeting also decided that each of the four urban bodies, Brahmapur Municipal Corporation (BMC), Gopalpur and Hinjili NACs and Brahmapur Development Authority (BDA) would deposit `5 lakh each while the remaining amount would be borne by the OSRTC for the purpose, he said.
It was also decided that the main depot of the proposed city bus service would function at Haladiapadar Auto Nagar on the outskirts of Brahmapur city, for which the district administration has agreed to identify 17 acres of land including two acres for city bus depot, five acres for Brahmapur bus-stand, and the remaining 10 acres would be used for the proposed market complex for passengers, sources revealed.
The city bus service would be made available to public at a frequency of every half an hour starting from 6 am up to 10 pm every day. The designated halt-posts or authorised stoppages would be determined jointly by the local police, PWD wing, and members of the committee. In addition, the committee also decided to have a bus terminal at Chhatrapur and another at Gopalpur soon, for which the required land of four and three acres, respectively, have been identified.
Among others who attended the meeting included Additional SP Prashant Baliarsingh, BMC Commissioner Dr Ajit Kumar Mishra, Brahmapur Sub-Collector Bijay Das, BMC Mayor Sibasankar Das, Chhatrapur NAC Chairperson T lakshmi and Gopalpur NAC Chairman Janaki Ram.
While reacting to such delay in introducing City Bus Service, a senior citizen said the State Urban Development Department lacks willpower to introduce such a service in this heritage city. For such inordinate delay why the Government is not making the district administration and the BMC accountable, he questioned.
On the other hand, city youth leader and advocate N Rajendra Kumar demanded that the city bus must run in Old Berhampur-Utkal Talkies Road-Gandhinagar Square-Railway Station while another bus in the same route up to Engineering School on priority to meet the emerging needs of local citizens.