City buses under JNNURM to hit streets from May 15, 10 buses repaired

Jamshedpur : The fleet of buses allotted to Jamshedpur as a part of JNNURM-sponsored city bus service that were sent for repair at a local auto workshop will hit the road from May 15.

Special officer of Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee ( JNAC) Deepak Sahay informed the deputy commissioner of East Singhbhum Amitabh Kaushal that the busses are being repaired and is expected to hit roads in May second week.

A total of Rs 64 lakh will be spend on the repair work. Meanwhile, in another positive development the urban development department has given its nod to the civic body for floating another tender for outsourcing the bus service to a private party.

“We do not have the requisite manpower for running the city bus service.

Therefore, we had sent a proposal to the state urban development department seeking its nod for outsourcing the bus service to a private agency..

The Jharkhand Tourism Development Corporation ( JTDC) had handed over the city buses to the JNAC in
November last year.

Currently , none of the buses are in running condition. The five year permits of several buses out of 50 have
expired last month. Those buses will have to pay road tax afresh before hitting the streets.

In Jamshedpur, the buses stopped plying from mid-October over a provident fund-related dispute between
JTDC and City Bus Karamchari Sangh, the employees’ union.

As per the proposal, an Expression of Interest would be taken out by JNAC for selection of a private party for running of the city bus services which would be monitored by the urban development department.

The buses would be repaired by the urban development before being handed over to the private party.

Out of the 50 Swaraj Mazda make buses procured under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission
(JNNURM) in 2010 at a cost of nearly Rs 5 crore only 10 odd buses are in running condition at the moment
in only three out of the seven notified routes.