(At least 1,000 new buses…)
DHARAMSALA: At least 1,000 new buses will be provided to Himachal Pradesh under the Centre’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission(JNNURM) scheme to strengthen the communication and transport facilitiesbetween its local and urban areas.
“1,000 buses are provided under JNNURM scheme by the Centre to promote public transport and to reduce traffic congestion and pollution,” state Urban Development ministerSudhir Sharma told reporters.
“Once the buses are handed over to Himachal it will cater to the local communication needs of the municipal areas and these will not be given to Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC),” Sharma said.
The Union government had provided few buses to Shimla a couple of years back but they were handed over to HRTC, the minister said.
“The Union government is spending more than Rs 4,900 crore to provide 14,695 buses for the various mission cities under JNNURM. The buses supplied to the cities and hill states are of mid-size category for an easier travel,” he informed.
Source-http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/
The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), which is going through rough times, is hopeful of strengthening its fleet with funding under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) transition phase 2013–14.
It also wants to create substantial infrastructure to meet the growing transportation needs of Bangalore by constructing bus depots, workshops and bus stations, with central assistance.
The BMTC has submitted a proposal of Rs. 1,046 crore to the Union Ministry of Urban Development seeking funds under the JNNURM. While many corporations are yet to prepare proposals, the BMTC is ahead of its counterparts and is hopeful of getting the funding early.
The proposal includes procuring 2,150 buses and creating infrastructure to expand the BMTC’s reach, according to P. Ravi Kumar, Principal Secretary, Transport Department.
Mr. Kumar told The Hindu that for tier-1 cities, the Centre would bear 35 per cent of the project cost while the State government would bear 15 per cent; the rest would be borne by the BMTC.
BMTC Managing Director Anjum Parvez told The Hindu that 550 air-conditioned buses, including articulated ones, are proposed to be procured under the funding. These buses would be operated on busy corridors, including Whitefield Road and Hosur Road.
Mr. Parvez said the BMTC proposes to construct 15 depots, two divisional workshops and 14 commuter amenity centres, which will be smaller to the present travel and transit management centres (TTMCs), under funding from the JNNURM. With the exponential growth of the BMTC, the two existing central workshops, one at Shanthinagar and the other at K.R. Puram, were found to be too inadequate to undertake proper maintenance of buses, he said.
With mounting operation costs due to frequent hike in diesel prices and with the BMTC having incurred a Rs. 147-crore loss in 2012–13, the funding is likely to offer a breather.
Source- http://www.thehindu.com
SURAT: The 700-metre-long rail overbridge atSachin on Surat-Navsari Road is now ready after one-year delay. The work on the two-laneoverbridge had started four years ago. This bridge, built at a cost of Rs 18 crore, will cater to over 20,000 per car units (PCU) and 5,000 commercial vehicles per day (CVD).
