City bus service should operate on non-BRTS routes also: Residents

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May l

City residents are of the view that the buses of the city bus service must be operated on routes other than the BRTS. They opine that, in this way, optimum utilisation of both mass transport services can be realised in the city.

Ever since the launching of the City Bus Service, the project seems to have run into rough weather because of the half-hearted attention paid by the authorities, claimed passengers.

The majority of passengers complained of an inadequate number of buses, lack of bus shelters and low frequency of buses as major reasons of the service not being popular among the passengers.

As per the original plan, a total of 150 low-floor AC, non-AC buses and mini-buses were proposed to be introduced in Amritsar under the JNNURM scheme, as the first public transport system for the holy city. However, a fraction of these were operationalised on roads.

A local resident, Kulwant Singh Ankhi, said both projects could be popularised among the residents with proper planning. Both of them could support each other by being allowed to run on separate roads, but linking them at certain points to provide passengers further journey on those roads where BRTS does not run.

With a total length of 30.73 km, the project is aimed at reducing the traffic mess and bottlenecks in the city. Seven dedicated corridors are being built in the city on the Albert Road, the Bhandari Bridge loop, the Bhandari Bridge roundabout to Daburji bypass, the Central Core Hussainpura Chowk to Celebration Mall to Kitchlu Chowk to the Albert Road Junction, the SSSS Chowk to Crystal Chowk, Celebration Mall to NH Bypass, NH Bypass to Verka Canal and ROB at Verka.

He favoured that the buses under the city bus service should not strictly be run on these roads, but on other roads, which can send passengers to the BRTS.

Thereby, the majority of the city area would be covered under the mass transport and tempt the residents, especially office- goers to shun individual vehicles. It would improve environment of the holy city. Both ambitious projects envisage to provide alternative mass transport.

Already, a Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP), got prepared by the Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Company (PMIDC) from an expert private agency for the holy city brought out a disturbing trend towards the high need to introduce mass-transport service here.

During its intensive survey, it was found that the expenditure on transport of families is higher than the expenditure either on housing or education or on health in Amritsar. It is next only to expenditure on food, which is a cause of concern.