THANE: The problem of lack of buses in the fleet of the Thane Municipal Transport (TMT) is likely to end soon. The Standing Committee (SC) House meeting of the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has cleared a resolution seeking to purchase 100 new buses for the TMT fleet but it will take at least two months for the resolution to materialize.
The subject came up for discussion on the floor of the SC House meeting held on Tuesday afternoon. The proposal sought to purchase 100 new and state of the art buses for the TMC run transport. The purchase is a part of the original project to purchase 200 new buses for the TMC run municipal transport.
The 200 bus purchase project is worth around Rs 56 crore. The purchase is to be made with the financial aid of 50 percent provided by the state and central governments under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). The corporation has got the sum from the JNNURM as well as the state government.
Kamlakar Dixit, the Deputy General Manager (Dy GM), TMT informed the House that the orders for the purchase of the first lot of 100 new buses is being placed. He expressed the hope that the 100 new buses would join the TMT fleet latest by the end of September. With it the problem of lack of buses on the roads would be minimized effectively.
The TMT official also informed that the TMT had also placed orders for the purchase of 23 new buses. These buses are likely to get inducted into the TMT fleet of 291 buses by the end of this month. The induction of these 23 buses would give sme relief to the TMT commuters battling low number of buses.
It may be noted that the JNNURM had considered a proposal by the TMT to purchae 200 new buses for its fleet. The proposal was accepted in April this year but steps could not be taken for its implementation at that time in the wake of the model code of conduct guidelines in force for the then parliamentary elections. The guidelines period expired on May 20.
Out of the project cost of Rs 56 crore Rs 28 crore has come from the JNURM. The TMT has to arrange the rest from its own coffers or take grants or loans. The TMC run transport wants the corporation to provide Rs 28 crore to it by way of grant for the purchase of the 200 buses. The TMT also wants another Rs 20 crore from TMC by way of grant to overcome the operational losses so far.
The buses under purchase would be of low floor and semi low floor categories. These categories are decided on the basis of the height of the floor of the buses from the road surface below it. Some of these buses would be luxury buses as well. Most of these public transport vehicles would run on CNG fuel only.
As of now the TMT has a fleet of 316 buses out of which 25 are on contract basis with the transport for five years. Five buses are of semi low floor category. Despite the impressive numbers only about 170 180 buses ply on the road for the estimated 3.5 lakh TMT commuters. The low number of buses under operation is blamed on old and worn out buses as well as freak breakdowns of buses while plying on routes.
A portion of the problem is also blamed on the lack of enough number of staffers in the second and night shifts. Most of the drivers and conductors having high political influence take up the first shift in the morning while only a few of them take up the job in the afternoon and night shifts. As a result the evening peak hour operation of the TMT gets crippled
courtesy:www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com
