Sekhar Srinivas
Jamshedpur, Sept 21 (BJNN) On the eve of World Car-free day, two NGOs jointly on Sunday launched “Double the Bus for clean air” campaign in the steel city here.
The representatives of “Adarsh Seva Sansthan” and “Mahila Kalyan Samity” along with students sent out the message in support the campaign through posters and banners at Sakchi and Sundernagar bus stands here.
The activists demanded to double the number of public transport services by 2030 in cities having over ten lakh population and allocate budget for state transport undertakings in Urban and semi-urban areas.
Justifying their demands, they said priority should be given to modern, safe and affordable for all bus services.
Elaborating further about “double the bus” campaign, they pointed out that at present only 24 buses were available for per lakh population against the standard requirement of 40/60 buses per lakh.
The state transport undertakings have only 1.4 lakh buses in the country. Out of these, one in every four buses was old and unsafe, they claimed adding that a shortage of 1.3 lakhs buses was recorded only in the urban areas.
Experts believed that India will need 5.85 lakhs operational buses by 2031 whereas as per the prevailing procurement system, the supply of 3.38 lakh buses was only possible, which means a shortfall of 2.46 lakh buses.
They argued that bus services are necessary as it was the backbone of mobility and the number of bus commuters was ten times more than metros. Besides, public transport services are most economical in view of energy and place. Increasing deployment of e-buses decreases pollution and congestion.
Apart, expansion of bus network could be made faster and at lesser cost compared to metros and rail network.
In a joint statement issued by the representatives of two NGOs, it was stated that bus services in an industrial and business city like Jamshedpur was the need of the hour as it was safe, affordable and accessible. Doubling the number of bus services will prove big relief for students, working class, women and common man.
They appealed Union and State governments to take a concrete step in this regard.
