Jaipur City Transport Services Limited has rolled out new norm to cancel hundreds of new BS-III buses. With this comes the replacement of new buses with some all the existing buses in the month of June.
JCTSL made order for new buses as many already existing buses need high level of maintenance and were running with low grade performance. On Supreme Court order, they have cancelled these buses. This decision has been taken to bring in the upgraded models of buses.
JCTSL officials mentioned that the company wanted three months time to transport new buses. JCTSL also said, “We have asked the company to deliver BS-IV buses which follows Supreme Court guidelines. New buses will be delivered till June end”.
JCTSL bought new buses and incurred massive downfalls on maintenance and operation. As per the reports, out of total low floor city buses, only half are in elite conditions and running perfectly.
Because these buses need high level of maintenance and give very less mileage, they are always short on funds. An official said, “Process to replace the existing buses started in 2014. However, purchase process was stalled due to delay in appointment of a private operator for maintenance. Work order to purchase new buses was released after an operator was appointed in 2016”.
The officials are just going anxious on not receiving the aid from Central government due to so much delay. With The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission scheme, center is making assurance to provide funds. This will be done if the buses will be arranged till March. JCTSL has also asked Center to provide some amount via letter.
Some department sources mentioned, “As per the rules, it is necessary to complete either eight years or 6 lakh kilometres for replacement of a bus. However, in this scenario, none of the condition is fulfilled as buses purchased earlier proved to be inferior”.
