CTU faces many road bumps

There are a 100 buses that the CTU has under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). Thinclude ese both air-conditioned and non air-conditioned buses. Besides,there are 154 ordinary buses. There are around 1.76 lakh passengers who commute every day on the buses.

A proposal was recently mooted to divert around 60 buses from the long routes to the local routes. The justification given is that this would improve the frequency of bus service within the city.

However,this proposal has earned criticism from the CTU union. “Diverting buses from the long routes to local routes would cause losses to CTU. Also,the buses that are meant for long routes cannot be plied within the city. There are reciprocal agreements with other states for plying inter-state buses. The move will only benefit the private transporters who ply their buses on long routes,” said Raj Kumar,general secretary of the Chandigarh Government Transport Union.

Not all is well with the global positioning system that has been installed in the buses. The system was installed by the Punjab Engineering College at a cost of around Rs 80 lakh. Apart from installing equipment in the buses,display boards were to be fixed at the bus stops where the passengers could keep a track of the movement of buses. A large number of these boards are damaged. At places the equipment is stolen or tampered with.

The CTU was also sanctioned less funds than required for filling diesel in the buses. Against the requirement of Rs 47 crore,just Rs 37 crore was sanctioned. The transport undertaking has moved a proposal that additional funds be sanctioned. With there being speculation about hike in the rates of diesel,CTU officials maintain even the additional funds may prove less.

CTU director T P S Phulka,however,said the proposals were being looked into. “There are certain buses on the long routes that are running in losses. We are hopeful of getting additional funds for fuel. At present,there is no shortage,” he added.