The municipal corporation's (MC) inefficiency to resume the City Bus Service-discontinued since July causing inconvenience to the city residents-was one of the most debated upon issues in the general House meeting of the corporation, convened here on Saturday.
The councillors of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while raising the issue of discontinued city buses stated that "deploying" unemployed youth rather than giving the contract to other agency can be a viable solution to the problem.
Inderjit Aggarwal, BJP councillor of ward number 18, said, "There are other councillors also who want a permanent solution to the problem of discontinued city buses, as this issue directly concerns the masses. It will be best to give jobs of drivers/conductors to the unemployed, and I can ensure that city buses will run in profit."
Similarly, Parminder Singh Soma, councillor of ward number 68, said, "The city bus project has failed to resume for the past several months and also there have been thefts of batteries, tyres and others accessories of buses. Authorities should start this service as early as possible, so as to avoid further taxes."
The City Bus Service was stopped in July due to which residents were forced to opt for other modes of transport, thus ending up paying more.
{{/usCountry}}The City Bus Service was stopped in July due to which residents were forced to opt for other modes of transport, thus ending up paying more.
{{/usCountry}}Currently two firms-Satkar and Company and Kisan Motors had showed interest in operating and maintaining the city buses. Earlier, Prasanna Purple Mobility Solutions, which was operating and maintaining the buses, had refused to operate the service, as the Ludhiana City Bus Service Limited failed to release pending dues of around Rs 2.5 crore.
Rinny Rabbeca, a resident of Sarabha Nagar, said, "I used to travel in city bus from my House to Jalandhar bypass to catch my college bus daily. But, due to non-plying of buses on roads for the past several months, my parents have to drop me at Jalandhar bye pass. This has become really difficult for us, so the service should be immediately started."
Baljinder Singh, another city resident said, "The City Bus Service project should be run by the MC itself. They should also deploy the unemployed youth. This would decrease the unemployment and also increase revenue of the MC."
MC commissioner Pradeep Agarwal said, "We had floated the tenders for City Bus Service, if this doesn't get a positive response, a decision will be taken with the consent of House members.