Route 2 expected to be rolled out by October

After teh launch of Gurugram’s city bus service on Sunday, authorities now plan to roll out the ‘Gurugaman’ service incrementally across the city. By March 2019, a total of 200 low-floor non-air conditioned CNG buses are expected to ply along 11 routes — as part of Phase-1.

Operated by the Gurugram Metropolitan City Bus Ltd (GMCBL), Phase-2 of the project will kick off after March next year. While the current fleet of 200 buses operate on CNG, the next 300 will include electric buses, a statement released by the GMCBL, on Sunday, said.

An employee of JBM Auto, the vehicle manufacturer, said the company did not have the capacity to deliver all 200 buses at once owing to financial and resource limitations, and would be delivering the buses in batches of about 25 per month.

The second route of the service, from Sector 2 to Ghata village, will be launched in October once JBM has delivered the next batch of buses. “This is a long route and will have the most ridership,” V Umashankar, the CEO of Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) said. “The third route, from Harsaru to Dundahera, will become operational once the third batch of vehicles comes in,” Sunil Jain, transport advisor, GMDA, said.

While officials are hopeful, experts said this incremental launch might work to the detriment of the service’s objectives.

Sarika Panda Bhatt, a transport expert and director of Haryana Vision Zero, lauded the GMBCL for pulling off its launch, but warned that the service cannot operate one isolated route at a time. “A good network is extremely important to ensure the success of a city bus service. With the current system, it will take a long time for this network to develop,” Bhatt said. She also pointed out that the GMCBL had not planned enough routes to old Gurugram.

Bhatt said at least 1,200 buses were required for the service to make a tangible difference. “This was according to a study we did four years ago. Now, taking into account population growth, I would say we need 2,000 buses. However, to make even a slight improvement, we need at least 500 buses,” Bhatt said.

Going by the GMCBL’s plan, it will take over a year for 500 buses to begin operating in the city.

However, Bhatt praised the service for the way it has branded itself. “The buses look impressive. Such branding was also carried out in Indore and Bhopal ,where city bus services have taken off successfully,” she said.

A senior official and transport expert from Delhi Integrated Multimodal Transit System, who is consulting the GMCBL on the project, said, “The GMCBL will require rigorous implementation and careful monitoring to ensure success. That is something we will be helping with, including suggesting whether more buses will be needed. We will first have to see how efficient the service is in the current format first.” The expert added that Gurugaman’s success would depend on how well the services were integrated with the Metro rail.

First Published: Sep 03, 2018 04:46 IST