Sorry state of affairs in city bus service in Nagpur

Public transport marred by sad state of affairs 

(Published in 'The Hitavada' on March 9, 2013)

Staff Reporter

Once upon a time, there was a King. He was happy but his subjects were not. He recovered taxes from the subjects and kept on increasing the burden with every passing year. The subjects toiled hard to earn more and pay more taxes. Over the years, they started demanding reduction in tax burden, but the demand fell on deaf ears. Then, they demanded to bring about improvement in services available to them, at least. Something had to be done now. An idea came to the King’s mind -- Make people feel proud of high taxes and poor services. How? He got his kingdom awarded for being the best in providing services. People forgot tax burden and poor quality of services, and started talking about the award.

Precisely, this is what Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and city’s planning authorities are doing. But, the sheen fades away either with passage of time or with reality coming out. In case of the NMC getting the Best City Award for Nagpur in public transport segment also, sheen faded away sooner with ‘The Hitavada’ standing by the side of the people and bringing out the truth about poor public transport services. There was overwhelming response from the people, who welcomed ‘The Hitavada’ initiative of having a ‘Reality Check’. Even many officers of NMC appreciated the campaign of acquainting the people at large with truth about public transport. Of course, these officers provided some inputs but wished to remain anonymous.

A further digging and visits to repair workshops of city bus service (Starbus) and interaction with drivers, commuters, repair-men, NMC officers, and office-bearers revealed that public transport in the Orange City is marred by a sad and sorry state of affairs. Here is what came out after a deeper probe.

Apart from broken chairs, missing handles, damaged window-panes and wind-shields, unhygienic and unclean interiors of Starbuses, some other ailments have come to light during a travel in a Starbus on a long route. Many buses have head-lights or tail-lights missing, making it difficult for drivers of other vehicles to judge whether a bus is coming from behind or a motorcycle at nights. There are several buses with fused bulbs in the interior. Liberal help of tape is taken to tie together the spliced wires supplying power to these bulbs.

As far as ‘First Aid Box’ is concerned, it is installed near the driver’s seat in several buses. But, it is in good shape or in proper use only in a few buses. In a couple of buses, it was being used as a tool-box. In some more, material supposed to be used to provide first aid had gathered dust, revealing that the ‘First Aid Box’ is not being taken care of on a regular basis. Broken window-panes troubled many commuters as scorch of the summer Sun was felt by them directly. On winter nights a few days earlier, the commuters did not know how to save themselves from the biting cold. And, one can imagine what will happen in the rainy season.

Obviously, this is not a happy scenario for a city like Nagpur, which is the Second Capital of Maharashtra. For visitors/outsiders, Starbus is the only affordable mode of public transport. But, with such poor maintenance of city buses, they obviously carry a bad impression of the city, its civic body, and elected representatives.

Of late, Nagpur Mahanagar Parivahan Limited (NMPL) formed under NMC to take care of issues pertaining to public transport in the city, and the city bus service operator Vansh Nimay Infraprojects Limited (VNIL) are engaged in buck-passing game over the issue of non-availability of quality services to people. Apart from pointing out damaged interiors and exteriors of the buses, NMPL also brought it to the notice of VNIL that drivers deployed on Starbuses did not stop at designated bus stops many times, thus causing inconvenience to commuters. On availability (or lack of it) of proper parking place and space, NMPL stated that it had provided land for parking of NMC buses procured under JnNURM. However, it accused VNIL of utilising the space at Jaitala, Patwardhan Ground, Zero Mile, and Baidyanath Square for parking buses procured by operator. As a result, buses procured under JnNURM were being parked along road side, where miscreants damaged them.

According to official records available with NMC, neglect towards maintenance of fleet of buses has resulted in ‘early scrapping’ of 60 buses of the operator. Besides, for want of tyres, ‘so many buses were and are off-road’, NMPL records reveal. The operator has got four parking places allotted namely at Jaitala/Hingna, Patwardhan Ground, Baidyanath Square, and Zero Mile. In all, 208 Starbuses are parked at these places for repair. 

These include: Jaitala/HIngna -- 90, Patwardhan Ground-- 86, Baidyanath Square-- 24, and Zero Mile-- 08.

“The position of other buses operating on road is not up to the mark and complaints are being received for broken glass panes, damaged seats, passenger cabin lights etc.” states a report of NMPL in possession of ‘The Hitavada’.

City Mobility Committee dissolved!

This may come as a shock to many, and especially commuters. The City Mobility Committee formed to ensure availability of proper facilities to commuters, redress their grievances, and to take the services available to the next level, has been dissolved! This shocking information has come to fore recently. When VNIL threatened to quit operations if the issues it raised were not redressed, NMPL shot back a reply pointing out several issues that were supposed to be addressed at the level of city bus service operator. In its letter, NMPL itself has stated that the City Mobility Committee ‘has been dissolved as the same had no legal efficacy in view of the repeal of the City of Nagpur Corporation Act’. Thus, Nagpurians are not getting quality services from public transport system, and the on-paper mechanism of City Mobility Committee to take care of their grievances also has been dissolved. This leaves the commuters in the award-winning city with no grievances redressal mechanism. Jaaye toh Jaaye Kahan...?

How is maintenance carried out? 

Against the backdrop of poor maintenance of Starbuses plying on city roads, it becomes necessary to understand how poorly maintenance activities are carried out by city bus service operator.

A visit to ‘parking places converted into workshops’ revealed that of a total 218 buses on road, only around 100 are washed daily at night. This is due to shortage of manpower with the service operator. An interaction with staff at the repair depots brought out the fact that only around 50 persons take care of repair, washing, replacement of spares etc of 218 buses. This means, one person takes care of four buses. Interestingly, of these 50 also, 30 are not VNIL staffers but they work for agency to which work has been ‘outsourced’ by the Starbus operator.

Daily, on an average, 50 buses come for this or that repair to these workshops. Most common repairs are related to engines, fuel pump, gear box, clutch plates, pressure plates, air brakes etc. As the buses are driven in crowded areas, clutch and brakes are to be used frequently. This causes damage to clutch plates and even leads to bursting of brake-pipes. However, repairs take more time for want of proper replacements or inadequate skilled manpower. The persons engaged in washing of buses may not be able to repair some fault in engines. 

Photo courtesy: Satish Raut

According to a mechanic at one of these workshops, there must be a staff of at least nine persons per bus. Ideally, these should include a driver, a conductor, a supervisor, two for repairs related to body of bus, two for repairs related to engine, and two for washing purposes. Going by that proportion, there must be a staff of 1,962 persons for 218 buses on-road. Considering that the city had got 470 buses including 230 received under JnNURM and 240 purchased by VNIL, there must have been a staff of 4,230 persons to take care of entire fleet in a proper manner. As this is not the case, buses are maintained poorly and seem to run more on God’s mercy and commuters’ good luck.

Flawed planning takes toll on city’s horizontal growth

Apart from bus service, other popular mode of public transport in Nagpur is auto-rickshaws. Yet another mode of public transport could have been available for the city, had the elected representatives had some foresight and vision for long-term development.

This another mode of public transport could have been Railways. Now, Metro Rail Project is being given a purportedly serious thought with its Detailed Project Report (DPR) getting ready. It is proposed to run in a stretch of 37-odd kilometres. Elected representatives are trying so hard to get the project sanctioned and ‘remove bottle-necks’ in way of the Metro Rail. Just a little peep into development history of the city leaves one wondering if the elected representatives were sleeping some time back?

Those following up the matter related to development of city keenly might remember that there was a proposal called Ring Railway. The project was supposed to utilise land that once had railway track under Ministry of Defence. The ‘Defence track’ covered various areas from Ordnance Factory Ambajhari to Pachpaoli where it got connected to Delhi route. As per the proposal of Ring Railway, this railway track was to be connected to some nearby stations to provide a better connectivity from and to various areas like Ambajhari, Hingna, Jaitala, Jaiprakash Nagar, Wardha Road, Ajni, Sitabuldi, Pachpaoli, and Kalamna.

Instead of sensing an opportunity for development of public transport system keeping in mind the future needs of the city, elected representatives preferred losing it. They pressed for de-reservation of the land and making it available for development of real-estate project like ‘London Street’ (which is yet far from getting started in the real sense). Thus, the precious resource of land available for effective public transport system, was lost.

Who should be blamed for such a poor vision for planning, if not the elected representatives?