Aapli bus at your service again
| Date :27-Oct-2020 |
Staff Reporter :
Aapli bus to resume services from tomorrow
Finally, Aapli Bus service is set to resume its operations post lockdown in city from October 28 onwards. Mayor Sandip Joshi and Municipal Commissioner Radhakrishnan B had long deliberations and finally gave okay to Transport Committee to resume city bus operations in graded manner. Narendra Borkar, Chairperson, Transport Committee, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), chaired meeting of Transport Department on Monday and directed officials to chart out the action plan for restarting the bus operations to provide relief to citizens who are facing hardships in absence of services.
He declared that the city buses would ply with full occupancy on the lines of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC). A meeting was held at NMC wherein officials of Transport Department held detailed discussions with city bus operators to determine routes where buses would ply and guidelines that would be in place for the operational staff. Arun Pipurde, PRO and Labour Officer, told The Hitavada that in all in first phase only 90 buses would ply in totality as the response needs to be factored in. The routes on which the buses would ply is going to be decided by Delhi Integrated Multi-modal Transit System Limited (DIMTS), the liasoning agency overseeing the four bus operators of civic body, but priority is likely to be areas on outskirts of city from where maximum people come to city in connection with work. The 15-km periphery from city centre would be focus of initial restart and around 30 buses would be operated and thereafter numbers be increased steadily.
Given the apprehension among citizens about COVID-19 pandemic, at present one does not know how the response to city buses would be so the number of buses on roads would be decided as per need of travellers, he added further. The operating staff would have to wear gloves, ensure all protocols are followed and social distancing is maintained as and when possible, use of hand sanitizers frequently etc. Similarly travellers would also need to comply with all the instructions like wearing masks, avoiding travel in case they are ill, keeping safe distance and avoid crowding. Before lockdown started from last week of March about 361 buses used to ply in city providing a cheaper travel option. Right now in absence of buses, the autorickshaw are plying but people are finding it quite expensive mode of travel. Especially working class population who have daily traverse long distance the resumption of bus service would provide them quite a relief.
Also the people who preferred buses to reach work places would also be elated at news about resumption of service in second capital of State. Though several delegations and political parties had been pitching for resumption of services, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was finding it hard to get nod from administration. Municipal Commissioner had conveyed the ground situation to higher-ups in State administration and awaiting directions that seemed to have got stretched a bit too long. As pressure was increasing on Mayor with political parties making strong pitch and taking potshots at ruling block, the administration finally blinked and ayed resumption of Aapli Bus services.
In fact, local bus operations had already resumed in state capital Mumbai long back despite lurking fear of further spike in COVID-19 cases whereas in city State Government took its own sweet time in accepting proposal to restart the services. The Transport Department meet was attended among others by Shakeel Niyazi, Transport Manager; Ravindra Pagey, Administrative Officer, Arun Pipurde, Labour Officer; Vinay Bharadwaj, Accounts Officer; and from operators' side Neelmani Gupta, R K City Bus Services; Parekh, Smart City Bus Services; Sadanand Kalkar, Travel Time City Bus Services; Shekhar Admane, Unity Security Force Services; and Suryakant Ambadekar, DIMTS.
