A fleet of 31 new buses are biting the dust in the city bus stand as former deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal’s ambitious Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) continues to run with just 20 buses on the road.
The project, inaugurated on December 15, is yet to see full-fledged implementation of buses and fulfil Sukhbir’s vision to provide better connectivity to people of the holy city.
During inauguration, it was announced that around 25 buses would be on the road till the end of the phase first (till January end) and 60 would reach till the second phase (February end), but the reality is that only 20 buses are plying on the road while 31 new BRTS buses are parked in the bus stand to rust.
Also read | Badals’ much-hyped BRTS project in Amritsar still waiting for buses
The officials are tight-lipped about the new buses in the BRTS depot along the Verka highway pointing that every phase of the project is running late.
The BRTS project team and PWD official, on the condition of anonymity, said the new buses have reached the city but they have not been brought on the roads as first, they need to be sure about the stretches as there are a few hitches and traffic glitches in a few dedicated corridors, making things tough for the buses to move smoothly.
{{/usCountry}}The BRTS project team and PWD official, on the condition of anonymity, said the new buses have reached the city but they have not been brought on the roads as first, they need to be sure about the stretches as there are a few hitches and traffic glitches in a few dedicated corridors, making things tough for the buses to move smoothly.
{{/usCountry}}They also informed that they are trying that the entire circuit from India Gate till Batala road is completed but as the construction of a few bridges is on, it would take a while.
Former deputy commissioner (DC) Basant Garg said that complete routes for BRTS project would get functional by July 2017 as two critical bridges —Bhandari bridge and Verka —are in making.
Till the time construction work of overbridges is not complete, the entire 31-Km area which has to be covered in the BRTS cannot be completely functional, he said.
Meanwhile, the administration has also been negligent about solving the traffic problem around the corridors besides setting signal timings so that the movement of road traffic and BRTS does not clash.