Better late than never! Commuters will now be able to board BRTS buses from SG Highway as the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) finally inaugurated the 3.5-km-long BRTS stretch from Shivranjani Crossroads to Iskcon Circle on Saturday.
Ahmedabad Janmarg Ltd (AJL), a special purpose vehicle of AMC for running BRTS, has provided a shuttle service from Iskcon Circle to Nehrunagar. “Commuters need to change the bus at Shivranjani Crossroads and Nehrunagar for going to RTO and Maninagar/Naroda, respectively,” said an AJL official.
After inauguration of the Shivranjani-Iskcon stretch, a 3.5-km stretch between Soni ni Chali and Odhav will be added to the BRTS network soon on the eastern side of the city. This stretch was also supposed to be inaugurated on September 6 along with Shivranjani-Iskcon stretch to mark the inauguration of Asia BRTS conference in the city. However, it could not take place for some reasons.
It needs to be mentioned that inauguration dates of many other stretches of phase-II of BRTS have kept changing. AJL had planned to expand its reach from 44.5 km to 57 km by December 2011. However, it could add only 3.5 km to its network till now.
Moreover, the civic body had also promised to take BRTS to Bopal and Chandkheda by March 2012, which too has not materialised. The work is going on at snail’s pace on AEC Crossroads to Sola, RTO to Visat Petrol Pump, Iskcon Circle to SP Ring Road and Nehrunagar to Passport Office stretches.
Utpal Padia, executive director of AJL, could not be reached for his comments on delay in completion of BRTS corridors. Meanwhile, mayor Asit Vora also performed ground breaking ceremony for a multi-purpose hall under Chanakyapuri railway overbridge, water distribution centre in Gota and capacity expansion project of Jaspur water treatment facility on Saturday.
