Chandigarh to have 300 concrete bus queue shelters

Having already changed the design of bus queue shelters twice in 13 years, Chandigarh administration is going back to simple and cost-effective structures. Bids to build 300 bus shelters using RRM (random rubble masonry) technique, also known stone masonry, will be out by the end of this month.

The UT administration had approved the design about a year back and even has constructed a sample in Sector 17.

The new concrete shelters will have sitting capacity for about seven people. The design is in sync with the intelligent traffic system to be adopted by the Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU).

UT chief engineer Mukesh Anand said,” everything has been finalised and bids will be invited through request for proposal (RFP), which we will float by the end of this month. We are hopeful that construction of the shelters will begin in November this year.”

The RFP will be on Public Private Partnership (PPP), wherein the selected agency would construct the new bus queue shelters and renovate the old ones within a year. The agency will earn revenue through advertisements displayed at the shelters and it will maintain it for five years, Anand said.

Currently, the city has 10 RRM bus shelters, whereas there are around 135 brick-and-mortar shelters that are also essentially of the same strength and character.

On the other hand, at least half of the 250 shelters across the UT are in a dilapidated state, because the administration has failed to take up their maintenance for the past four years. Also, around 70 of the 82 shelters built with steel and other material will be demolished.

Designs over the year

This is not the first time that the UT administration has decided to alter the design of city’s bus queue shelters. In 2013, the administration constructed around 70 bus stops made of steel at a cost of ₹13 lakh each, whereas those made of bricks cost ₹3 lakh each.

Earlier in 2004, the administration had come up with kiosk-style shelters on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis. The contractors could put up advertisements in these bus stops.

MC to charge fee for advertisements on bus queue shelters

The UT administration’s decision to allow display of outdoor advertisements on all new and existing bus queue shelters will generate revenue for Municipal Corporation.

Chandigarh MC will impose advertisement fee for display of advertisement that may earn it a revenue of at least ₹2 crore a year. A meeting in this regard was held recently in which it was decided that an agency that will get rights to display outdoor advertisement on the bus queue shelters will pay fee to the MC as per the advertisement control order, 1954. The fee will be paid in advance irrespective of whether the agency concerned exhibits advertisements or not.

Total number of bus queue shelters will soon increase to 500 as UT engineering department plans to construct new bus queue shelters.

“Total earning from 500 bus queue shelters will be between ₹2-4 crore,” he said

MC yet to recover advt fee from seven firms

The MC is yet to recover ₹25 crore in advertisement fee from seven firms which were earlier involved in displaying advertisements on city’s public toilets.

In past one year, MC has written to DC to recover dues from these firms but there is no progress.

First Published: Sep 21, 2018 13:52 IST