Rain brings misery, Faridabad bus stand remains ubmerged

Bijendra Ahlawat

Tribune News Service

Faridabad, August 22

The rain that lashed the city yesterday has left several parts of the city deluged for the second day today. The general bus stand is among the localities that remained waterlogged on Sunday affecting the services of the Haryana Roadways and inconveniencing commuters.

“The main bus stand located at Ballabgarh, remained out of limits for the buses and passengers, who wanted to travel by bus to various destinations,” said sources in the Transport Department. Despite plying of almost all buses, the commuters, including women passengers and children, who had converged to avail the free travel on the occasion of Rakshabandhan today, outnumbered the buses. “ The premises got waterlogged around 9 am on Saturday and remained deluged for the second day today due to poor drainage system and inadequate measures,” claimed an employee on condition of anonymity. He said hundreds of passengers who wanted to travel to various destinations were incinvenienced in the wake of the closure of the bus stand due to waterlogging.

Poor drainage system, inadequate measures

The premises got waterlogged around 9 am on Saturday and remained deluged for the second day on Sunday due to poor drainage system and inadequate measures. —Employee, Transport department

New state-of-the art bus stand to be built

Faced with drainage issues, the existing bus stand is proposed to be replaced with a new and state-of-the-art one to be built on the public-private partnership mode at a cost of Rs200 crore, the DPR of which is being prepared. —Mool Chand Sharma, Transport Minister

Passengers take to other means of transport

Many passengers had to take other means of transport to travel to their destinations. The authorities failed to provide additional buses despite heavy rush. —Yogesh, Resident

“Many passengers had to take other means of transport to travel to their destinations,” said Yogesh, a local resident, who could not get a bus for Sonepat this morning . He said the authorities failed to provide additional buses despite heavy rush. However, officials of the Transport Department claimed that 105 out of the fleet of 110 buses plied on various routes today. “Faced with drainage issues, the existing bus stand is proposed to be replaced with a new and state-of-the-art bus stand to be built at a cost of Rs 200 crore, the DPR of which is being prepared”, says Transport Minister, Mool Chand Sharma.