400 New JnNURM Buses For Kerala

27 September2012
Kochi

The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, in its latest sitting, sanctioned 400 buses for Kerala. Among the total 2,433 buses allotted to six states, Maharashtra got the most (900), followed by Kerala and Rajasthan (286). The mission also sanctioned 73 buses for Andhra Pradesh and 50 each for Chhattisgarh and Puducherry.

The additional buses are expected to be a breather for the state, but JnNURM has reiterated that they should be run under ‘sustainable environment’, unlike the way they were used last time.

The Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, Dr Sudhir Krishna, while chairing the second meeting of the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee (CSMC), said the buses should be run by a corporation or a company under a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) entity.

“The bus system is the most popular among the mass rapid transit system as it helps people to take advantage of employment opportunities by helping them to gain access to inaccessible areas. But to make the bus system sustainable it needs to be run under a SPV entity”, he said.

It was also decided at the meeting to provide funds for support infrastructure like bus depots. “We are trying to replicate the metro experience on buses to uplift the brand image of Public Transport by Bus”, added Sudhir Krishna.

The buses will have state-of-the art facilities like intelligent transport systems (ITS) including features like LED display for stops, CCTV cameras, GPRS, passenger information system, vehicle tracking system and automatic fare collection system. The state will now have to distribute the allotted buses between Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram corporations, the two regions where JnNURM buses can be run.

JnNURM had allotted 300-odd buses for Kerala in 2009, but those were used by the KSRTC without setting up a SPV entity. The buses were also used for inter-district services, a move which was recently stayed by the High Court.

Source– http://www.deccanchronicle.com

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