Private buses to ply on city roads by Diwali
The AMC plans to run 900 buses for public transport on the city roads by this Diwali instead of 350 buses presently plying in the city.

The AMC plan is likely to bring much needed relief to the commuters now depending on the only public transport system of the city — the AMTS.

Out of 900 buses, 450 would be run by AMTS which has a fleet of 350. The AMTS is planning to rent 150 buses and 300 to 350 private buses will also start plying on the roads by Diwali as the tenders are likely to be allocated by the state government to private parties in the next two months.

Municipal commissioner R K Tripathi said that in the last three years the AMTS has borne losses of Rs 180 crores due to reducing profits. "We have to take the decision about solving the problems of AMTS as well as city commuters. We have decided to privatise 50 per cent public transportation in the city," he added.

The process of allocation of tenders for private transport has already begun. "We are seriously discussing with many private parties. They have genuine problem, which needs to be settled down like, the use of the parking plots, octroi, and concession to students. All this issues are likely to be solved in the next month and around 300 private buses would ply on the city roads in the couple of months," Tripathi added.

He further said he would like to run the 600 buses of AMTS and maintain the staff to run those buses. "Out of it 450 would be AMTS buses while 150 buses will be taken on rent," he added.

The AMC has also started to streamline the staff structure in the AMTS. Mr tripathi said at present there are 13 person per bus in the AMTS, which will be reduced to six person per bus. Seven hundred people in the AMTS have been served notices to leave their job he added.

Clarifying the stand of AMC on the control of private transportation in the city Mr Tripathi said the AMC would be a facilitator for the private operators. They might run under separate entity and would be controlled by transport department or regional transport office of the state government, he added.

Republished from The Asian Age