The Ranchi Municipal Corporation is moving slowly but steadily in the direction of reviving dead routes for city buses and increase reach of the passenger transit system to cover all important stretches in the city. The grand part of the plan has started with the mapping of bus stops in phases beginning from the present route between ITI Bus Stand and Dhurwa.
Notably, out of six routes earmarked under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) for city buses, only one has been active due to less number of buses which were running under the Centre’s city development plan. The necessity arose during a meeting between various stake holders of the public transit system on May 16 which also exposed the under-preparedness for rolling out all buses on city’s streets.
“The routes were demarcated for running 72 buses under JNNURM. Since we have decided to hand over all buses to the new player we will revive six routes. Right now we are focusing on one route and formed a team to map bus stops,” said PRO of RMC, Naresh Kumar Sinha.
The present route between IT I Bus Stand and Dhurwa is dotted with around 17 stops of which nearly 13 are defunct and four are in operational condition. The team will look into the requirements of stops and changes in design of stops. The team comprises DSP Traffic, Assistant Engineer of Road Department, Assistant Engineer of RMC and representative of the empanelled agencies, ITDP. The team will submit its report on May 23 to the RMC for further action.
The initial findings suggest erratic positioning of bus stops where concentration of stops are prevalent in between Kutchary Chowk to Plaza Chowk (three stops) whereas there is no stop for dependents of public transport system between ITI Bus Stop upto Kutchary Chowk. The uneven distribution propelled the RMC to relook at the feasibility angel of putting up bus stops.
Meanwhile, the RMC is likely to handover another fleet of buses to KM Travels which is operating city buses under the contract awarded by the municipal corporation. The agency at present maintains fleet of 10 buses.
“By Tuesday we will hand over 10 buses to them. There is no deadline for handing over all buses as it is being repaired. We will give those buses as and when it comes to us in suitable condition,” added the RMC PRO.