A fleet of new city buses launched few days ago for commuters convenience is yet to be streamlined. Ironically, despite the Municipal Corporation’s order, the new city bus operators are yet to submit the timing and routes chart details to Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC). The civic body officials have claimed that notice has been sent to one bus operator, managing both old and new buses at the moment to cite the major constrains that is posing hurdle in making the bus services fully operational here in State Capital.
“Two weeks ago, the Municipal Corporation had given a notice to the new operator to submit the route chart lists demarcating all the bus stoppages detail. As per our records, the date has already passed yet the civic body has received no response from the bus operator’s side. Within a day or two, stringent action will be taken against the bus operator, Suresh Paswan,” said, RMC, Assistant Executive Officer, Ramkrishna Kumar.
Notably, the city buses are yet to cover all major routes as per the plan of RMC and Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) cell. The civic body including Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) had earlier demarcated four different routes to ferry passengers. In June 2017, the civic body has asked the operators to finalize the list of bus stoppages including the timing schedule. A week long time was also allotted to both the operators to make the bus service fully operational here in capital city.
Suresh Singh who has been given the responsibility of operating 26 new city buses beside 40 old city buses, said, “We require some more time to prepare the list of bus stoppages and timing. Some essential documentation tasks are pending. As of now, few city buses have been made operational.”
Similarly, Kishore Mantri, the proprietor of KM Travel Private limited, managing the task of the city bus operation since 2013 has held RMC responsible for all mess. “RMC officials had said that they will conduct a meeting and prepare the time-table seeking the traffic conditions of all routes but the work is pending with the Municipal Corporation even now. Due to undefined bus stoppages, the operation of city bus service is facing blockage. Out of 25 city buses at present only 13 city buses are ferrying passengers,” said Mantri.
Bus stoppages at a distance of 400 meters at major routes have been also demarcated earlier by the ITDP team. However, the civic body so far has just defined the localities from where the city buses will convey passengers.
All 91 city buses service were suppose to cover routes from Tupudana to Birsa Chowk, Namkom to Ratu, Project Building to Kutchery Chowk, Kutchery Chowk to ITI Bus Stand including Harmu to Kanke yet even at theses defined locations, it is difficult to find city buses ferrying commuters. Sources also maintained that few city buses are plying on suburb routes due to traffic congestion.