Admn to take action for damage to BRTS lane grills

Charanjit Singh Teja

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 13

Though the basic infrastructure of the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) is yet to be completed, the local administration and the Municipal Corporation are worried about the perils to the existing one.

The MC has written to Public Works Department (PWD) to take action against those who are removing the grills of the BRTS corridor.

Earlier, Deputy Commissioner Kamaldeep Singh Sangha had issued strict instructions to register police cases against people responsible for breaking them.

However, no case has been registered till date. The grills can be seen missing from several locations.

The officials are suspecting that drug addicts steal these grills to purchase drugs by selling them. But at several points, the residents have removed the grills for their own convenience because the lane created hindrance in crossing the road.

The government went about building costly infrastructure, including raising nearly five-km elevated corridors on the Albert road, Bhandari Bridge loop, Bhandari Bridge roundabout to Daburji bypass, Central Core Hussainpura Chowk, Celebration Mall, Kitchlu Chowk, Albert Road junction, SSSS Chowk, Crystal Chowk, Celebration Mall, NH Bypass, to the Verka Canal and the ROB at Verka. It raised 2.5 metre-wide columns in the middle of these roads to operate buses.

The project is yet to be made functional and only 10 metro buses are plying on the railway stasion-India Gate and Verka-railway station routes. More than 50 buses are rusting at the BRTS bus stand near Verka bypass chowk. It has been observed that a bus comes to the BRTS stoppage after an interval of half-an-hour and ferries very few passengers.

It is worth mentioning here that former deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had inaugurated the BRTS project with an eye on reaping its benefits in the assembly elections. The project worth Rs 600 crore is still incomplete as the railway overbridge is under construction to link the routes with the bus stand.