Expressing disappointment over the delay of a new Scheme “Augmentation of City Bus Services including Associated Infrastructure and Green Urban Mobility Initiatives, a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs recommended that scheme may be implemented in mission mode with no further delay and the necessary approval from the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) may be taken without further loss of time.
In another observation, the committee has recommended to involve local elected representatives from local bodies, Legislative Assemblies and Members of Parliament in formulating a project and they should also be informed about details of third party inspections of the project.
The Modi government has announced a Rs 18,000 crore scheme to augment public transport in urban areas in its budget last year and the scheme has not been approved in the Expenditure Finance Committee so far. The scheme was announced to facilitate deployment of innovative public private partnership (PPP) models to enable private sector players to finance, acquire, operate and maintain over 20,000 buses.
The Committee, headed by MP Jagdambika Pal, tabled its report in Parliament on Thursday, said that the Ministry’s reply is silent on the suggestion for taking up the scheme under Mission mode; and, (ii) even after the passage of one year, the said Scheme is yet to have the approval of EFC.
“The Committee find from the reply of the Ministry that the delay in launching the Scheme was due to (i) advise of the EFC for structural change in the Scheme; and, (ii) the various stakeholder meetings held with the officials of State Governments, City Officials, Bus Manufacturers and Bus Operators to receive their feedback/inputs," the Committee said .
The report further said that the Ministry has informed that the proposal is at advance stage of approval in MoHUA and is only being considered for posing it to Department of Expenditure for appraisal by EFC in the month of March, 2022. “While acknowledging the need for taking all the stakeholders on Board and complete the processes before actual implementation, taking one year even to place final proposal for approval of EFC may not be desirable,” the report said adding that the Committee may also be briefed regarding the modalities.
In its another observations, the Committee recommended that elected representatives from local bodies, Legislative Assemblies and Members of Parliament of the concerned ward/constituency may be involved from the stage of project formulation to implementation and may also be informed of the details of the third party inspection such as the details of the inspecting agency and the time of inspection well in time to ensure the smooth conduct of the same.