Seven years after its foundation stone was laid, the fully AC “busopolis” at Mohali, christened as ‘Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Inter State Bus Terminus’ (ISBT), was finally inaugurated on Friday.
As per the schedule, the busopolis was to be made fully operational some five years ago, but the work, which was to be completed in two years, took a total of seven years to complete. The construction company — C&C Constructions — has, time and again, cited unavailability of construction material for the project that led to delay.
The project, dubbed as Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal’s dream project, was constructed at a cost of `300 crore and equipped with all the modern state-of-the-art facilities such as Wi-Fi, ATM, online ticketing and other basic facilities for the ease of public.
Describing it as India’s first model bus terminus, Sukhbir, after inaugurating the same, said that this ISBT can be favourably compared with any of its kind around the globe.
Along with the “first-of-its-kind busopolis in India”, Sukhbir also inaugurated Transport Bhawan, Transport Safety Bhawan and Excise and Taxation Bhawan in Mohali — giving a further push to Punjab’s glorious journey towards having a world class urban infrastructure.
Regarding ISBT, Sukhbir said that it would showcase Punjab as a leader in providing and strengthening infrastructure. “This model of ISBT would be replicated in all corporation towns of the state,” he said adding that 1,900 buses would ply daily from this ISBT.
Making more development-centric announcements, said that the foundation stone of six-lane Kharar-ludhiana expressway and four laning of Ropar-Phagwara road would be laid on December 19 whereas four-lane elevated road from Mohali to Kharar would be completed in one-and-half year.