Rs 300 crore spent, Mohali residents dump new ISBT

Kulwinder Sangha

Mohali, June 26 

Despite a busopolis with state-of-the-art facilities coming up in Mohali in December last year, its inconvenient location has compelled residents to depend on the old, shabby but better located bus stand in Phase VIII.

While the new ISBT is air-conditioned and is equipped with many other facilities, the old bus stand projects a picture of a neglect. It lacks basic  sanitation and the parking  area is in bad shape.  Passengers complain that the bus stand does not have proper arrangements  for drinking water even though a water cooler has been installed. Taps are damaged and toilets stink. There are inadequate number of fans for passengers. 

Sunita Rani, who is pursuing an HRD course in Chandigarh, said on her way back, she took a bus from this bus stand for Kharar. She had often faced  a problem of drinking water and was forced to fill her water bottle from a nearby gurdwara. The toilets are also stinking. 

Ravinder Singh, another passenger, said the Phase VIII bus stand was  terribly dirty. At night, it presented a picture of  desolation because of inadequate lighting. 

Some buses do go to the new ISBT but often do not stop there as hardly any passenger is seen there. Hem Raj, who had come from Jalandhar to Mohali in connection with some work, went to the new ISBT in the Phase VI Industrial Area to catch a bus back to Jalandhar. 

Hem Raj said, “I do not know when I will be able to get a bus from  the ISBT as it does not seem to be functional.” 

 Mohali  MLA Balbir Singh Sidhu, who had got the old bus stand in Phase VIII functional the very next day (March 12 ) the Congress won the Assembly elections, admitted that it lacked many facilities and was in a state of neglect. He said he would hold a meeting with  the GMADA authorities to discuss the problem. He said the location of the new ISBT created problems for residents. It could be made functional only after providing proper connectivity to it as travelling in auto-rickshaws to the area at odd hours not only led to problem of safety but also of  fleecing of passengers.