Gurgaon: In the absence of a strong bus network, the city may find it difficult to effectively adopt a strange evening scheme.
Gurugram Metropolitan City Bus Limited (GMCBL) currently has a fleet of only 173 buses, 2 routes, without vehicles in reserves – this even though the comprehensive mobility plan states that 600 additional buses are needed on “direct base” serving a population of 16.8 lakh (on 2019).
This means that GMCBL needs to increase at least 581 buses more to have a 754 fleet according to the plan.
The CEO of the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), where GMCBL operates, said there were plans to include additional vehicle procurement on the agenda for the next meeting.
In such situations, when a strange scheme is even implemented next week, a population that cannot use their private vehicles on certain days and others who rely on public transportation for travel will depend on the number of taxi limited, autorickshaws, and e-rickshaws operate at City, which will then be a short supply.
GMDA said the number of buses cannot be increased at such short notifications.
“We don’t have a reasonable vehicle.
All of our vehicles are operating at this time,” said CEO Sudhir Rajpal.
The absence of a strong bus network also found mentioned in the GMDA comprehensive mobility plan, which was released in December last year.
At that time, GMCBL had 154 buses.
The document states that there is a need for additional 600 buses as “immediate requirements”.
A year later, GMCBL only added 19 buses to the fleet.
Asked about any plans to get additional vehicles, RajPal CEO said, “We will bring the agenda in the next authority meeting to get more vehicles.
The Department of Transportation Haryana also plans to buy 50 electronic vehicles for local transportation in Gurgaon.” These plans , however, it will likely take several months to realize, implies that a strange scheme even, if adopted, will be applied without changes to the city public transport network in terms of the bus.