Nashik has a population of 17 lakh people today and the use of public transport is massive in the city. Considering the demand and the scheme by Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renovation Mission (JNNURM), 25 new buses will be running on the streets very shortly.
The currents statistics show that:
- The present number of buses in the city for public transport is 235.
- The population of the city is 17 lakh as on today
- 190 buses run on the streets out of 235
- The rest are kept for emergency purposes
- The buses cover more than 42,000 km on a daily basis conveying almost 4 lakh people.
- The requirement of the city buses is 680 to, 40 buses for a population of 1 lakh.
A senior official from MSRTC, Nashik informed “The MSRTC is due for a new set of JNNURM buses, and as per discussions held between the MSRTC vice-chairman and managing director, Deepak Kapoor, and the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) commissioner, Sanjay Khandare, the first set of 25 buses will hit the city streets very soon. The rest of 175 buses will follow suit.”
On the other hand, one of the hurdles in this scheme is the accommodation for parking of the buses during night hours. Though the MSRTC is very much of the idea to add new buses for public welfare the anti-social elements might cause trouble of thefts and misuse of parking lots.
To this an official announced, “There is hardly any space to accommodate the buses in the current areas. Even then, our central office has decided to take in 25 new JNNURM buses. We have got the funds for construction of the Nashik Road depot. Once that is done, within a period of 12 months, we will be able to accommodate more than 100 buses.”
According to the sources, to strengthen the public transport systems the provisions for additional buses has been given by the central government to municipal corporations under the scheme of JNNURM. 100 buses were received under the scheme in 2010 from the centre. On May 1, 2010 the buses hit the roads.
The city buses will not only cater the citizens at large but also benefit the city to have disciplined public transport as the over loading of buses will no more be a matter of concern. We look forward to the introduction of many such beneficiary plans for public well-being.
