The transport manager of Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service (AMTS), Arjav Shah, on Wednesday, moved his budget for the next fiscal year.
The budget estimates Rs 508.17 crore. In a press conference, Shah spoke about the plans of city transport services and how to improve the services. The civic body is planning to ban entry of state transport service buses into city limits and rope in buses of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).
"This can help in many ways. More than 2000 buses of different state transport are entering and leaving the city on a regular basis. It causes heavy traffic snarls. We will rope in AMTS buses for Geeta Mandir or other depots," said Shah.
"We are considering this move to reduce traffic burden and to ease air pollution as well. We will rope in more city transport buses for the public," added Shah. On an average 750 buses will run in 2018-19 daily on city streets, while average bus fleet will be of 816 buses expecting fleet utilization of 91.19 per cent. There will be 700 bus top poles across the city with a sitting capacity of two people have been planned under budget.
Moreover, Shah also announced plans to renovate Lal Darwaja terminus. Interestingly, the civic body has been talking for the last ten years about renovating the terminus, but to no effect. AMTS has decided to reserve 50% of the seats for females. Last year as a pilot project, each zone's one bus has implemented 50% reserved seats for female passengers. In a year, the authority has launched social media platforms to seek public opinions and complaints, in addition to their toll free number. After a year, they has received 2,660 complaints out of which two complaints were received on twitter, six complaints were on Facebook, 725 on WhatsApp and 1,835 were calls received on toll free number. The budget also promises to improve infrastructure of existing depots of AMTS with water stands and toilet blocks.
PLANS ZIPPING
- Budget estimates Rs 508.17 crore. In a press conference, Shah spoke about the plans of city transport services and how to improve the services.
- Civic body is planning to ban entry of state transport service buses into city limits and rope in buses of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.
