The Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) has failed to construct bus stops in Srinagar, leaving commuters to suffer. As per the officials, 140 bus stops were to be provided in the city but two years have passed nothing has been done.
A group of commuters at Soura said apart from the actual bus stops, bus drivers frequently stop their vehicles at any place which leads to traffic jam and overloading.
Umer Yousuf, a resident of Illahi Bagh said, “Whenever I board a mini bus for office, these are found waiting for commuters.”
“Apart from employees, even students, office workers and locals have to go through this problem,” Yousuf said. He said in other states of India bus stops at a proper stop, but in Srinagar there are no such bus stops.
In 2015, Srinagar city was included in Smart city program by the ministry of urban development in which 100 cities were to be selected for urban renewal.
The aim of the mission was to promote cities that provide infrastructure and provide a quality of life to citizens.
The smart city project for Srinagar was approved in April 2017. One among them is to provide 140 bus-stops to Srinagar city which is still waiting from past three years.
Apart from bus stops, there are also no traffic lights, zebra crossings which are risking lives of commuters. However in master plan, the government has claimed to construct bus stops at major junctions in the city.
Majid Nabi a commuter at Karanagar said the government has failed to construct major route junctions. “Public transport including mini buses are the major cause of traffic jam in the city as they can be seen boarding passengers at every nook and corner of the city,” he said.
Majid said even outside the major hospitals in the city there are no bus stops and zebra crossings. As per officials at SMC in 2018, the district administration had designated over 140 bus stops to be constructed in the city.
“Only few were constructed by the SMC,” he said.
“There is dearth of bus shelters in the city. Even at some locations bus stops are being used for commercial purposes,” he said. Last year government announced the much-hyped electric buses in the city but unfortunately there are no designated bus stops for these buses as well.
However, an official of SMC said the project is under process and it will take some time to complete.“We are working on it, hopefully the project will be completed soon,” he said.