Bus queue shelter design stirs row

LUDHIANA: Construction of around 82 bus queue shelters in the city in all four zones of the MC is going on at a fast pace

Updated At : 06:54 AM Jan 05, 2016 IST

Work under way at one of the 82 bus shelters coming up in Ludhiana. Tribune Photo: Himanshu Mahajan

Shivani Bhakoo

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, January 4

Construction of around 82 bus queue shelters in the city in all four zones of the MC is going on at a fast pace. Almost all shelters will be ready by next month, say officials of the company that has been awarded the contract.

A few traffic experts and councillors feel the shelters were not being built as per the guidelines and the violations could prove fatal if not rectified timely.

Greenline Company has been allowed to put up their ads on these 82 bus shelters “free of cost” as “compensation” to the company ordered by the High Court.

Inder Aggarwal, BJP councillor, alleged that the MC had turned a blind eye to the violations just to please the company that belonged to an influential person. He said a bus shelter on Ferozepur Road had all sides covered. Passengers sitting in the bus shelter will not be able to see if bus was coming or not. Its design is against the guidelines.

“Just to put up more and more ads, which are a good source of revenue, the company is not giving two hoots to the guidelines. But this can prove fatal for both passengers and commuters as ads will distract their attention,” said Aggarwal.

A member of the National Road Safety Council, Government of India, Kamaljit Soi, who has been engaged by the Municipal Corporation authorities to keep a check on each and every bus shelter if these are coming up as per the set guidelines, said: “The General House of the MC has already given its nod to other details. We are here to check if there is any violation in the construction of the 82 bus shelters. At this stage, I cannot comment on anything but yes, there were a few flaws, which need to be rectified by the company. We will submit a detailed report to the MC in the next few days,” said Soi.

Meanwhile, Shavinder Singh Sandhu from Greenline Company said the company was constructing all bus shelters as per the norms. “In fact, we are taking extra care while constructing these. The MC had to make bus shelters for us where we could display ads. But now, shelters are being constructed by us at a cost of about Rs 6 crore. We have just three and a half years to display ads on the bus shelters. After that these will become property of the MC. If somebody keeps on levelling baseless allegations, we can do nothing,” said Sandhu.