Bhopal: In a bid to provide better public transport connectivity, the urban administration department planning to lay a network of bus services linking state capital directly with over 50 cities and towns of the state. The direct bus services from Bhopal to places as small as town and tehsils would give succor to hundreds of people who have to take a number of buses to reach the state capital.
If everything goes right and as per planned, then the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) will be given the responsibility of operating the buses under the new project. The urban administration department has floated tenders for direct bus services from State capital to other cities and towns. It is believed that in all likelihood the department will hand over the responsibility of operating these buses to the Bhopal Municipal Corporation.
Though, BMC had earlier experimented with a similar plan a few years back, however, all its effort drew a blank owing to various factor. Now, if given a change, the civic body will once again try its luck, hopefully for good. As per the plan, the buses will start from ISBT for different destinations.
Meanwhile, the BMC is also mulling over plying buses to nearby cities including Vidisha, Ashta, Dewas, Sehore and others. The Corporation had earlier tried to ply buses on the lines of state roadways but owing to apathy of operators, it had to shelve its plan. An official of the BCLL (Bhopal City Link Limited) said that if urban administration department starts bus services then it will probably choose civic bodies to operate these buses and in that case, the municipal corporations and council of all the cities will be picked as operators, he added.
