Nagpur: The shortage of electronic ticketing machines has led to the serious transportation problem. As many as 25 branded ‘mini’ buses (part of Apli Bus — a city bus transport service of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation) have arrived but lying idle due to lack of electronic ticketing machines (ETMs).
Sources said lack of ETMs has badly affected the city bus operations. Travellers were forced to commute in overcrowded buses on many busy routes including Kamptee, Butibori and Hingna.
Confirming this, a senior official from Delhi Integrated Multi-modal Transit System Limited (DIMTS) said the current ETMs are not enough to smoothly operate the city bus operation. The civic body would require 1,200 latest version of automated ETMs and the tender process to acquire has already commenced.
Even after revamping city bus operations by introducing three red and one green bus operators in December last year, the NMC is facing lot of hardships to improve city bus operations.
According to sources, the red bus operators have already bought 10 more buses for the city routes. Meanwhile, despite the demand of residents, the Transport Department has not given approval to ply buses on over 42 routes.
As many as 40 buses have been off road as the Transport Department has not approved 42 proposed routes. It was a major demand of residents living on the city periphery areas to extend the city bus service routes.
As per the new agreement, the NMC is supposed to operate a total 432 buses, of which only 232 ply on different routes. As per new arrangements, each operator is supposed to operate 79 standard old buses along with 50 midi and 15 mini new buses. But currently, these red bus operators are plying only 205 buses. “So half of Nagpur is still uncovered in frequency as per need,” said sources.
Sources said apart from lack of sufficient ETMs, DIMTS has no sufficient schedules and services to citizens are grossly affected. DIMTS are running lesser buses. Sadly after 120 days when the NMC revamped the city bus operation by introducing three red-bus and one green bus operators, still only half are running. And furthermore those which are running, many are doing only single trip and being kept idle in day time by DIMTS for reason best known to them.
New bus service launched
Mayor Nanda Jichkar, North Nagpur MLA Dr Milind Mane and deputy mayor Deepraj Paradkar on Wednesday launched the bus service between Deekshabhoomi and Dragon Palace in Kamptee. Two 35 seating capacity buses will make 11 trips between Deekshabhoomi and Dragon Palace. The price of full ticket on this route will be Rs30, whereas children below 12 years will be charged Rs15 per ticket.
