Nagpur: The Transport Department of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has submitted Rs 359.08 crore budget for 2023-24. No fare hike has been recommended for Aapli Bus service in Nagpur. Since the State and Central Governments are focused on electric vehicles, the NMC’s Transport Department has signed an agreement with PMI Electro Mobility for 144 electric buses with the funds of 15th Finance Commission. By the end of this year, these buses will be included the city bus fleet.
Disclosing this to newspersons on Friday, Ravindra Bhelave, Deputy Commissioner, Nagpur Municipal Corporation, said that with the entry of Nagpur’s Majhi Metro, the civic transport is finding the going tough as its ridership figure has dipped to one lakh per day compared to previous best ridership of 1.60 lakh. The competition on public transport is now hotting up as Metro services now cover the entire city, barring the Amravati Road.
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Saturday 01 Feb. 2025
Bhelave also informed about finalisation of Transport Department for next financial year with an outlay of Rs 359.08 crore, including carry forward of surplus of Rs 21.45 lakh. During the last year, the expenditure incurred by Transport Department was Rs 351.88 crore as against income of Rs 239.19 crore. The last regular hike in ticket rates was done in January 2019 and thereafter, a modest hike in July 2022. To a question, he said, no hike in ticket rates has been recommended as of now. But sometimes, in near future, the decision on increasing the fares would be needed in case debate arises as to rise in losses of Transport Department on running city buses.
Since NMC is duty bound to provide the services, the issue of profit does not arise as such, said Bhelave further. Similarly, Transport Department has created a special head ‘Revenue Surplus Fund’ to make use of surplus money. Also, Transport Improvement Fund head also been created in the budget. As to today, the daily travellers in city buses stand at 1.10 lakh, this was improvement as many daily commuters switched over from Metro after the latter jacked up ticket rates. Last hike in ticket rates was carried out in June 2022 when NMC decided to increase it by Rs 2 thereby helping reduce the losses in city bus operations to some extent.
Also, NMC has finalised the advertising policy, but a modest income of Rs 1 crore is expected by Transport Department through selling advertising rights on buses and its stops. Recognising the increasing use of technology, Bhelave said that, they are contemplating Tap In-Tap Out as same would help in plugging revenue losses. The technology was tried on Khaparkheda route and received good response. Now a machine reader will be installed on driver side to read the smart card for cashless travel on city buses.
Giving breakup of planned expenditure in next financial year, the NMC official said that, Rs 8 crore received from 15th Finance Commission would be utilised for erection of charging depot for electric buses at Wathoda on 10 acre land. Also, Rs 4 crore would be received for the project from NMC’s Assistant Aid. NMC received Rs 14,600 per bus stop put up as same is outsourced for advertising rights to M/s Sigh Post India Pvt. Ltd.
Bhelave further said that, NMC is expected to step in and provide Rs 130 crore to bridge the deficit as earnings from running city buses is pegged at Rs 82.13 crore, while expenses are going to be around Rs 212.13 crore.
Transport Hub
The Transport Department has also finalised plans to develop Transport Hub at Mor Bhawan. The five acres land on which trees stands would be cleared to develop a modern berthing platforms and same is going to take atleast one year period, said Ravindra Bhelave. This would solve the issue of parking of city buses on road side in Sitabuldi area. State Government, he said, has given permission to fell 1,024 trees on the land of Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth and we are trying to determine as to how many of them can be transplanted.
A 6.6 acre land in Gorewada has been identified for translocation of trees. Alternatively, Indian Air Force (IAF) has also given permission to NMC for planting sapling at their land in Chinchbhuwan area. Bhelave said that, though the operation cost of electric buses is low, the upfront cost of purchase of Rs 1.25 per unit is quite high compared to Rs 30 lakh for a diesel bus. At present, NMC has to shell out Rs 6/unit charge for power and in case, State Government lowers it by at least Rs 2, it would result in savings. Apart from charging stations at Wathoda, Orange Street and Wadi, NMC has also identified eight sites in the city for erection of charging stations as back-up in case of any emergency faced by running electric buses.
Double-decker buses
Municipal Commissioner and Administrator Radhakrishnan B has asked the Transport Department to study feasibility study of running double-decker buses on city routes. Ravindra Bhelave, while replying to a query, said that they have entrusted the task to their Transport Advisor DIMTS. Based on their report, the Transport Department can think of running such types of buses. However, with Metro having spread its network on all major thoroughfares, it’s almost unlikely to run such towering buses due to height issues.
Asked about plans to hand over city bus operations to Maha Metro, Bhelave said the talks failed as the former was not keen on taking over liabilities which was not acceptable to NMC. The other proposal of theirs about not running city buses on Metro routes is not feasible and restricting it to feeder routes.
