NMC to restart merger process of city bus, Metro Rail after 8 months

Nagpur: With the Metro Rail starting its commercial operation, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is contemplating to restart the process of integrating city bus services with Metro Rail, a plan mooted by additional chief secretary to CM Praveen Pardeshi in December 2017 and passed by NMC in July 13, 2018.
The MahaMetro, on the contrary, neither has accepted the concept nor has rejected it outrightly saying the concept is desirable only after the completion of phase-I work.

Municipal commissioner Abhijit Bangar told TOI a letter has been sent to MahaMetro to inform about the decision of merging the two services. “We are taking a follow-up action with MahaMetro,” he said.

MahaMetro managing director Brijesh Dixit said, “Right now we are busy with completing the phase-I work. Integration would be appropriate only after completion of phase-I and beginning of phase-II work. There would be no meaning in integration of two services till Metro Rail is used totally by people,” he said.

Smart City’s special purpose vehicle— Nagpur Smart and Sustainable City Development Corporation Ltd (NSSCDCL) headed by additional chief secretary to CM Praveen Pardeshi planned the merger city bus services with Metro Rail in December 2017. NSSCDCL conducted a feasibility study on integration of two services through a UK-based company, Grant Thornton India. On the basis of the report, NSSCDCL board comprising Pardeshi, mayor Nanda Jichkar, ruling party leader Sandip Joshi, leader of opposition Tanaji Wanve, other office-bearers and officials of the NMC passed a resolution on July 13, 2018, to merge the city bus services with Metro Rail.

Then, the resolution was forwarded to the NMC transport department which has been sitting over the proposal for the last eight months.

An official from the department said process will now be expedited. “It was decided at the government level itself to wait till the commercial operation of Metro Rail starts,” he said.

The official said there is a long process to hand over the city bus services to MahaMetro. “We are studying models of Gurgaon and Kochi integrated public transport system. There is also a need to amend the Maharashtra Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act before the merger,” he said.

The proposal will be tabled first before city transport committee followed by standing committee and general body. Then, it will require an approval of the MahaMetro board and the state government.

Chairman of city transport committee Bunty Kukde said the committee will clear the proposal without any delay. “Unified urban transport is required for success of city bus and Metro Rail. This is the only medium to give better services to the people. The NMC officials are inefficient also to run the bus services properly. The NMC is incurring a loss of Rs95 crore per annum. This amount can be spent on basic amenities once bus service transferred to the MahaMetro,” he said.