BRTS operators should raise fares,suggests Union secretary

Krishna,who was in the city for the Regional Conference to Review Implementation of JNNURM (Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission),said that BRTS in Ahmedabad was a successful model for other cities to emulate. “They can consider revising fares to make the service self-sustainable,” he said.

Guruprasad Mohapatra,Municipal Commissioner of Ahmedabad and chairman of AJL,said he would not comment.

Principal Secretary in the Urban Development Ministry of the Gujarat government said AJL was currently not incurring losses. “It is not incurring losses but the suggestion of fare revision was in the context of increased prices of diesel. The fares were fixed in 2009 and prices of diesel have seen a steep rise after that,” Guatam,who was Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner when the service was launched,said.

Gautam added that passenger fares were too low and Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and AJL,which is a special purpose vehicle fully owned by the civic body,will have to take a decision in this regard. Currently,the lowest BRTS ticket is priced at Rs 2. The highest priced ticket is Rs 18.

The BRTS service is one of the projects covered under the central JNNURM scheme in the city. It was highly successful and has won two international and two national awards in urban transport.

‘Gujarat ahead in JNNURM implementation’

AHMEDABAD: Union Urban Development Secretary Sudhir Krishna has said that Gujarat is ahead of other states in implementation of Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) projects.

Talking to the media after the Regional Conference to Review Implementation of JNNURM,Krishna said Gujarat and Maharashtra had done the best implementation of the central scheme for urban infrastructure. He added that proposals will be made to cover more cities under the project after March 2012.