GMCBL to hire an agency for upkeep of bus queue shelters

To maintain more than 200 bus queue shelters in the city, the Gurugram Metropolitan City Bus Limited (GMCBL) will soon hire an agency. Sonal Goel, who has been recently appointed as the CEO, GMCBL, told HT after inspecting the bus service on Friday evening.

HT Image

Goel said that bus queue shelters currently lack maintenance and need to be improved. “An agency has to be hired for the purpose. The department has already floated a tender which will be finalised by February,” Goel said after she inspected the shelters of Tau Devi Lal stadium and Rajesh Pilot Gurjar Marg.

In a video posted by the GMCBL, Goel was seen commuting by a bus on Route 116 from the Dwarka Expressway Chowk, Daulatabad, to the Rajesh Pilot Gurjar Marg. She boarded the bus from the Tau Devi Lal stadium with four other officials.

Goel questioned the conductor about the bus operations in detail, such as reserved seats for women, divyangs (specially abled) and the elderly, the daily footfall of commuters, the functioning of the emergency switch, the availability of the first-aid kit, and the usage of smart cards among others.

It was during the inspection that Goel noticed the bus queue shelters. “In terms of operations, buses are running fine, only the shelters require upkeep,” she said.

Notably, in October 2019, the GMCBL recorded a total ridership of 1 crore passengers. Officials maintained that there had been a drastic improvement in the services as new routes were started. Similarly, smart travel card users had also increased. The intra-city bus service also started a ladies’ special bus from the railway station up to the Huda Metro station covering old and new Gurugram.