The officials of Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) even after four months of initiating the city bus service appear clueless about the frequency of buses plying on proposed routes. Despite investing hefty amount on operation of city buses to streamline the inept urban transportation system in State Capital, commuters are facing problems due to the undefined timing of buses.
The Civic Body including the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) personnel had identified four routes within the municipal periphery for operating city buses. According to the previous route chart plan, the city buses was expected to convey passengers covering routes from Tupudana to Birsa Chowk, Namkom to Ratu, Project Building to Kutchery Chowk, Kutchery Chowk to ITI Bus Stand and Harmu to Kanke.
However, it seems that the plan of running city buses along the busiest routes in accordance to the set time has been shelved due to registration, fitness permit issues including the maintenance of old city buses (Swaraj Mazda). Also, the plan of completely restricting the penetration of e-rickshaws within urban pockets has been deferred as RMC officials are yet to crack the whip on illegal auto drivers ferrying without permits.
“The frequency of city buses on designated routes will be decided soon. Around seven run-down buses have been sent to the servicing centers. The RMC transportation cell along with the bus operators will draft the feasible plan. Already instructions have been conveyed to the bus operators to submit a draft copy mentioning two major points- - number of bus stoppages and the footfall of passengers on different routes,” said, RMC Officer (PR) Naresh Sinha.
The Municipal Corporation in December 2016 had purchased 26 more new city buses from TATA Motors to add on to the existing fleet of old buses. At present, the Municipal Corporation has around 91 city buses for ferrying daily commuters. Meanwhile, in the absence of proper route chart plan and schedule, only few city buses at present operate at designated routes without any scheduled time. As per the agreement, during the launch of new city buses, it was figured out that on daily basis from 6 AM to 8 PM city buses will ferry commuters.
Stating the prime reasons for delay in making operational all the city buses on the designated routes at one go, the proprietor of SKS Travels Private limited, Suresh Singh said, “Presence of auto-rickshaws, increasing numbers of e-rickshaws, pending documentation work including the repair task of derelict buses are four major key factors which is posing hurdle in smooth operation of city buses here. Also, plying city buses according to the set time-table is highly difficult.”
Notably, along with 40 old city buses, Singh has the responsibility of operating and maintaining 26 new city buses each having 32 seats. While the other bus operator, Kishore Mantri is managing 25 old city buses.