RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, April 7: After a survey was done in 2018 by a media house, it was found India has 1.2 buses per 1000 population. If that data is taken into consideration, Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) lags much behind even that poor national bus population ratio.
The RMC so far provided only 37 buses for 107347 (according to 2011 census) people, which means there is only one bus for the population of 29011 which further means .03 bus behind 1000 population.
These buses run on three routes…Naga Baba Khatal to Birsa Chowk via Kanta Toli, Kutchery to Rajendra Chowk and Kutchery to Tupudana via Rajendra Chowk. The operation of buses is expected to start at 5am and continue till 8pm but it starts running late and stops running early according to the convenience of operators, who are expected to share their income from buses with the civic body on a daily basis.
Due to poor bus facility or lack of rail-based rapid transit system, people in the city, which spread in about 175.12 square kilometers area, depend on private battery rickshaw and auto rickshaws, which not only make the city conveyance costly but chaotic also. During day hours one can easily observe the chaos on roads creating a big problem for pedestrians and traffic personnel besides others.
“While the city buses charge Rs 5 for 0-5km, Rs 10 for 5-10km and Rs 15 for distances more than 10 km, other means of transport charge minimum Rs 10 for any destination. After Rs 10, charges keep on multiplying several times according to distance,” Sujata Sahoo, a private school teacher, said.
Nejar Ansari, who operates buses of Ranchi Municipal Corporation, confirmed the situation by sharing hurdles.
“Like big cities, bus service is not viable in Ranchi as before 10am and after 8pm getting passengers becomes a challenge in ordinary days. During festivals the situation becomes worse as the city wears a deserted look and a limited number of passengers come out to use bus service,” Ansari said.
A bus operator Krishna Mohan Singh also supported the situation but cited different reasons for the same.
“There is a lot of corruption in Ranchi Municipal Corporation and it seems no one is interested in giving a proper public transport system. Finalisation of the tender for operating the buses is not done properly. Bidders who want to work with transparency are not allowed to work,” Singh said.
Kishore Mantri, who earlier used to operate buses on behalf of the civic body, parried reply on the matter saying ‘it is useless to talk on the matter as authorities are not committed to city bus transport service.”
Ashok Kumar, another city resident, said, auto-rickshaw rickshaw owners do not allow the city buses to become popular.
“There are auto-rickshaws which have permits to run in the city. Apart from this, there are 10,000 auto rickshaws that operate in the city without permission. Unauthorised auto rickshaws are a good source of illegal commission for traffic personnel and musclemen. Thus when talks start to increase the number of buses, they start terrorising bus operators or bribe RMC officials to provide the bus service in limited areas and in limited numbers,” Kumar said.
