Shifting of bus stand to Transport Nagar far cry

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, June 14

The work for removal of encroachments from Transport Nagar area to pave the way for shifting of general bus stand from its existing location, undertaken by the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT), might take some more time.

In all probability, those having raised structures in ‘no construction zone’ along the National Highway-44 or those under unlawful occupation of government land might be given some more time to submit and substantiate their claims.

The proposal to develop a new general bus stand on 38.5 acre area in the 114-acre Transport Nagar scheme of LIT, has been approved in principle under the ‘smart city project’ with the main objective of addressing the problem of traffic congestion from within the city. An estimated 2,500 buses pass through the city roads at present, causing unmanageable traffic congestion on the roads.

“In case the bus stand is shifted to Transport Nagar – located along NH-44, most of these buses would not have to come inside the city and traffic situation would ease to a great extent,” were the observations made in a high-level meeting convened by the Deputy Commissioner Pradeep Aggarwal in February, on this issue.

In a bid to identify the encroachments on the trust land and illegal structures in ‘no-construction zone’, the LIT had issued a public notice to the unlawful occupants to produce documents pertaining to possession or ownership of land and approval of construction from the competent authority within 15 days.

The notice said in case of non-compliance, all constructions or structures would be demolished at the risk and cost of the illegal occupants as per the directions of the Supreme Court made in the case of SLP No. 8519 of 2006 and the Punjab and Haryana High Court in CWP 4886 of 2003.

The trust engineer Dipankar Gupta said till now, some 50 objections had been received in connection with unlawful occupation or illegal structures; and most of these persons had sought some more time for submission of documents. “The trust office has also received representations from some other individuals and commercial entities for allowing some more time to them. We have sought permission from the LIT Chairman in this respect and probably in another two weeks time would be given for submission of documents, claims and objections,” he said.

He said, in the meantime, the field staff of the LIT would carry out a survey for demarcation of entire Transport Nagar scheme on the basis of revenue record so that the exact area under encroachment and unlawful occupants could be identified and proceeded against.

Shifting of bus stand to be a boon

• Nearly 2,500 buses will not have to enter the industrial city if the bus stand is shifted to Transport Nagar.
• Traffic congestion on city roads would ease to a great extent.
• Most buses moving  to or from Delhi, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Pathankot, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir will have direct access to bus stand without the need to enter the city.