The population of the city is expanding rapidly each year and has reached around 578,420, as per the 2011 Census, but the number of public transport vehicles still needs some augmentation. Additional Regional Transport Officer (ARTO) (Administration), Sandeep Saini, too, admitted that the number of city buses on various routes is less and needs to be increased.
Talking about the negative consequences of city bus shortage, Saini said that regular checking drives are also being conducted by the RTO and offenders being penalised. He also informed that around 556 challans were issued last year for overloading public transport vehicles including buses, vikrams and auto rickshaws.
As per official sources, the official survey by RTO officials for augmentation of public transport vehicles in the state capital was last held on June 21 in 2010 and the numbers of vehicles on few routes were also augmented at that time. The population scenario has changed widely since then but no any fresh survey has been conducted by the RTO officials in this respect to the augmentation of the city buses in the town.
Inspite of the consistently increasing number of passengers along with the rising population there has been no increase in the number of city buses. This is leading to irregularities like overloading especially in the city buses. City Transport Commissioner at Transport Headquarter, Rajiv Mehra stated that a regular survey should be conducted by the RTO officials to manage such transport related issues.