The students travelling in city buses would soon be able to access internet through WiFi to be provided in the city buses on routes having universities, colleges and schools.
Directions in this regard were issued by the Chief Minister Raman Singh in a review meeting of Urban Administration and Development (UAD) department held here at the Mantralaya on Wednesday.Singh said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a target to develop a ‘Digital India’ and, in this pursuit, Chhattisgarh will provide WiFi facility around school colleges, bus stand, railway station, Collectorate, hospitals etc to help people in accessing internet with ease.
He asked the officers to start operation of 100 city buses in Raipur in the first phase of city bus service and 451 buses in 70 cities in the second phase of the project.
The Chief Minister directed the officers to decide on the route of the city buses at the earliest. The officers informed the Chief Minister in the meeting that in the first phase as many as 65 mini buses and 35 buses will be operated by Raipur Municipal Corporation (RMC) in Raipur city. A project of Rs14.85 crore has been approved for this.
In the second phase, 21 clusters will be formed and 70 cities would be linked through city buses. This will link 21 more cities and 49 link towns with the city bus service. This project will be worth Rs169.19 crore. This will include Rs136.40 crore for purchase of buses and remaining for development of infrastructure like construction of bus depot, terminals, workshops etc.
They said that a Gazette Notification has been published for including 9 cities under the project so far and a State-level Urban Transport Monitoring Committee has also been constituted. The registration of urban transport societies had been done in Raipur, Durg-Bhilai, Rajnandgaon, Bilaspur, Korba, Raigarh, Koriya, Surguja and Bastar.
An urban transport wing has also been formed in the State Urban Development Authority (SUDA). All the societies have floated tenders for purchase of buses; while the tender process for selection of bus operators will be completed by November, officers said. The Chief Minister also reviewed the centrally sponsored schemes run by SUDA which include BSUP scheme for construction of houses for 17726 families. The project will have an estimated expense of Rs375.47 crores.
He also reviewed the status of IHSDP scheme worth Rs225.60 crores for construction of houses for 17922 families in 17 cities. During the meeting, Singh also reviewed works under ‘Rajeev Awas Yojana’, water supply projects, sewerage projects etc.