Residents miffed at BRTS project deadline extension

Charanjit Singh Teja 

Tribune News Service 

Amritsar, July 14

The deadline for the completion of the BRTS project was extended once again by Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu here on Friday. Sidhu announced that the BRTS project would be re-launched on October 15.

Earlier, Sidhu had promised to complete the pending work on the BRTS lanes till August 31.  He also had claimed that the project would be fully operation in September. 

Before the Assembly elections, the Congress leaders had promised to revive the BRTS project within six months   after forming the government.

Meanwhile, RTI activist and district Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Suresh Sharma has been raising questions on the shortcomings of the project for last couple of years. Sharma claimed that the government used substandard material.  He also raised question on the viability of the project.

The Rs 600-crore project has been pinching the residents as it hinders the movement of traffic.  Former Cabinet minister Lakshmi Kanta Chawla had raised objections on the removal of centuries-old trees on the Mall Road for the construction of the BRTS track.

Meanwhile, in the absence of any comfortable mode of public transportation, residents are a harried lot. Residents are hopeless after the failure of the city bus service.

Rameshinder Singh, a resident, said, “The government made a promise to provide world-class facilities and spent crores of rupees but failed to come up with positive results. The project has been hanging fire for the last two years. There is a negligible hope that government will revive it.”

The metro bus operating firm has been plying only nine buses. Other 70 buses are gathering dust at the bus terminal near Verka.  The BRTS stations 

witness accumulation of rainwater. Miscreants have stolen iron grills alongside the BRTS lane.