The Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) on Friday stopped plying of buses on 14 routes in the tricity leaving the residents in lurch. Due to shortage of buses, repair work and staff crunch, the CTU announced to stop plying of buses on as many as 14 routes in the tricity in the morning.
An official of the CTU said that the CTU services on some tricity routes have been stopped for some time due to various reasons.Giving details, he said, “The bus plying from Ram Darbar to Dhanas is stopped due to vehicle shortage, bus service from ISBT-43 to Saketri is stopped due to repair work of bus.”The CTU bus service on five routes is stopped due to staff shortage. This included routes from ISBT-17 to Kharar, Sector 43 to Punjab & Haryana High Court, Sector 43 to IT Park, ISBT-43 to Mansa Devi and buses plying in Ram Darbar.
Other routes where CTU bus service was discontinued due to bus repairing work included PGIMER to Phase 11 Mohali, ISBT-43 to Zirakpur, ISBT-43 to Nada Sahib, IBT-43 to Contonment, ISBT-43 to Saketri and buses plying in Manimajra, he added. Till September, around 350 CTU buses were plying on different routs within the city.
Notably, a total of 170 AC and non-AC buses were to be delivered in Chandigarh till November however, the delivery of the buses was running behind schedule. Another fleet of 49 midi-buses for the CTU is also expected to be delivered before the end of the year.An exercise of revamping the city transport is also underway in Chandigarh.The Intelligent Transport System (ITS), a passenger-friendly initiative will be introduced in CTU. Chandigarh, along with other three cities of the country has been selected for a project by the World Bank where the city bus services will be introduced with ITS.
For the execution of the ambitious project, the World Bank has agreed to sanction funds and has also conducted a study to modernise the city’s transport system. The World Bank survey will enable the Chandigarh transport system to get the information about required buses, passenger capacity and improvement required in schedule and bus routes here.