E-Paper
Formal bus service begins
AFTER A five-day long free trial run, the City bus service finally rolled out in earnest on Monday with ticketed rides being conducted on six buses along three routes. Extension of the service to other routes will, however, have to wait, as ten buses that were to arrive today failed to turn up. The vehicles are now expected to arrive next week.
AFTER A five-day long free trial run, the City bus service finally rolled out in earnest on Monday with ticketed rides being conducted on six buses along three routes. Extension of the service to other routes will, however, have to wait, as ten buses that were to arrive today failed to turn up. The vehicles are now expected to arrive next week.
On the inaugural day, ticketed services were provided on Route No 2 (Dewas Naka-Rajendra Nagar), Route No 10 (Bombay Hospital-Nagar Nigam) and Route No 11 (Radha Soami Satsang-Bada Ganpati).
Operations started at 7 am sharp today, with the first bus departing from Bombay Hospital. On an average, each bus conducted seven trips and it was 10.30 pm before the drivers finally hung up their keys. The low-slung 44-seater buses, with standing room for 20, generated significant business on the inaugural day.
Even though daily commuter traffic was absent owing to the Ravi Dass Jayanti holiday each vehicle reported 60 per cent occupancy by evening, thanks equally to the ongoing auto-rickshaw strike and public enthusiasm.
And, for once, the public wasn’t shortchanged. City buses delivered on every promise; be it clean drinking water, newspapers or on-board mobile chargers.
The ticket-dispensing machine was an object of great curiosity with passengers invariably crowding around it and urging the conductor to ‘take out one more time’. To most commuters the biggest, and most pleasant, surprise, though, was the polite demeanour of the drivers and conductors.
“It is a welcome change after years of tolerating rude and obnoxious behaviour of mini-bus staffers,” said Shruti, a final year student of Gujarati Girls College.
Although City bus staffers were well mannered, one couldn’t say the same about most of the passengers, who showed themselves unacquainted, or unconcerned, with the nicety of queuing up at bus stops. Every time a bus arrived, people surged to the entrance shouting questions about the destination.
Although the boorish behaviour passed muster today, mostly owing to the holiday crowds, daily commuters can expect a tough time if residents fail to learn bus etiquette.
Wait till March…
City Bus Service in-charge SDM Chandramauli Shukla: ‘‘Full-fledged City bus services will now have to wait until the first week of March. Although preparations at our end are complete operations have been held up by delays in bus arrival.
The ten buses that were to arrive today have yet to leave Goa. This delay will further stagger the next batch of ten buses and the required number of vehicles will only be available by March 5-6.’’
