Nagpur: The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has made a provision of Rs 18 crore grant for purchase of 40 electric midi buses in the Transport Budget presented on Tuesday. The NMC’s Transport Manager Ravindra Bhelave submitted the Transport Budget for 2021-22 expecting a revenue around Rs 246.04 crore. The budget was submitted to Narendra Borkar, Chairperson, Transport Committee.
Bhelave also presented revised budget for current financial year wherein the pandemic resulted in severe drop in revenue. In revised budget estimates for 2020-21, revenue realization is pegged at Rs 77.03 crore while the expenditure would be Rs 76.86 crore. The expenditure for NMC during next year will be Rs 245.87 crore.
The meeting was attended by Deputy Mayor and Transport Committee members Manisha Dhawde, Archana Pathak, Vaishali Rohankar, Rupa Roy, Visakha Bante, Rupali Thakur, members Rajesh Ghodpage, Nagesh Mankar, and other officials.
Bhelave, while presenting the budget mentioned that separate heads are created under the name of ‘CityTransport Fund’ for the operation of transport undertakings, ‘Revenue Reserve Fund’ for utilization of surplus revenue balance and a ‘Transport Improvement Fund’. In order to provide efficient and well-planned bus service to the citizens, the city bus service has been re-arranged according to the number of passengers.
As the corona is still creating havoc, at present the number of daily passengers availing the city bus service is around 50,000 and the total number of daily buses is around 3,500.
DIESEL/CNG BUSES: A total of 252 buses are running, including 153 standard buses, 73 midi buses, 21 mini buses and five Tejaswini buses for women on electric charging. The budget has focused on completing some schemes with a view to speed up the development and administrative work of the Transport Department. In line with the implementation of pollution free and environment friendly policy, 237 standard diesel fuel buses of the NMC would be converted into CNG fuel buses.
City bus service was completely closed from March 23, 2020 to October 27, 2020 due to the outbreak of COVID-19. However, the service provided through city buses during this period was specially mentioned in the budget statement. During the Corona epidemic, patients were taken to segregation centres, doctors and nurses were transported from zonal buses, converts of minibuses to corona corpses were carried out, special safety measures were taken at the rear of buses for corona testing. About 60 buses, including 20 per operator were in service day and night during the epidemic.
Highlights of Budget
■ A grant of Rs 18 crore for 40 electric midi buses
■ 3.70 acres land out of 8.75 acres at Khapri Depot to be allotted to Ewe Trans Pvt. Definitely for 40 MIDI buses
■ Rs. 3.55 crore for Roads and Development works in the area at bus depots.
■ Initial provision of Rs. 10 crore for construction of Wathoda Bus Depot
■ Rs. 75 lakhs for erection of bus stop signs
■ Rs. 5 crore for workshop and building repairs at Khapri Depot, building repairs at Pardi Naka, road repairs and toilet construction at Lakdaganj Depot and DP at Mor Bhavan.
