Midi buses will replace them and each of the old bus will be sold for a paltry sum of Rs 10,000
Bhopal: The BMC’s holding company Bhopal City Link Limited (BCLL) will operate new mini buses in place of low-floor buses. On Tuesday 10 new midi buses replaced the 10 old buses.
However, the old low-floor buses are being sold at throwaway price. The BCLL is selling low-floor buses at the rate of Rs 10,000 per bus which is even less than the price a junk dealer pays. Accordingly 150 low-floor buses will be sold for just Rs 15 lakh.
5 each midi buses on two new routes
Five each midi buses have started operation on SR-2 (Nehru Nagar to Katara) and SR-4 (Karond to Bairagarh Chichli) routes. Currently 150 low-floor buses are running on various routes and it is planned to replace them all with midi buses.
Besides the purchaser has been given the option to buy new buses in place of these buses after two years and in that case they are entitled for 70 per cent subsidy.
150 low-floor buses had started in 2009
BCLL had given tender to Prasanna Purple Company to run 150 buses on eight routes. The company had to pay 30 per cent of the cost, while the balance amount was provided under Central government’s JNNURM scheme. After eight years, the buses were sold to Anant Padmanabha Motors and Shri Durgamba. All the conditions were relaxed and the royalty was also reduced. Earlier Prasanna Company used to pay Rs royalty of Rs 6000 per bus. But later for the two operators the royalty was reduced to just Rs 100 per bus.
Only 90 buses in service, rest parked in depot
Despite these concessions, the two new operators did not get the old buses repaired and parked them at the depot at Depot Square.
Rs 5 crore went down the drain
Before selling the 150 buses the BCLL had got Rs 5 crore from the state government for the refabrication of buses. But not even 100 low-floor buses ran on the route for one year and now they are being replaced.
BCLL had fixed the frequency of buses as five minutes. But people have to wait for 10 to 15 minutes or even more at the bus stops.