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Guwahati, June 14: In order to ease traffic congestion in Guwahati, the Kamrup metro district administration has decided to stop movement of city buses.
As per sources, 109 buses have been taken off the road in Guwahati and the vehicles will be kept in Khanapara.
Meanwhile, the bus owners' association has not welcomed the decision to halt the buses at Khanapara.
The district administration in a tweet further sought feedback from citizens if any issues were faced by the public due to the restriction.
Guwahati city bus commuters have been under enormous strain when it comes to public buses. Most of the bus services are overcrowded and inconvenient; halt on stoppages for a longer duration, stopping and picking passengers from busy and crowded roads and sometimes competition among the buses have proved to be dangerous. Moreover, the government-run public buses are also not sufficient for the commuters as very few buses are available on the roads.
The decision to stop the movement of city buses has come as another blow to the daily commuters as they were left stranded for an alternative mode to commute to their work place or educational institutes.
As per reports, due to the ongoing building of flyovers in several sections of the city, restriction of buses have been implemented in several routes. Around 109 buses were made off road in Guwahati and this will continue till the city's flyover building work is completed, said reports.
Responding to the tweet of district administration, a social media user stated, “Decision is good. But in Guwahati I feel odd and even should be implemented due to heavy congestion. It is important that flyover works should not be started at one go rather it should have been started in phase manner which would have helped.”
“Taking off buses may ease traffic but it will create difficulties for many people. More than this, Guwahati needs better traffic mgmt, vehicle parking mgmt, road widening, faster construction works, staggered timings for schools, not more than one cut/U turn in one KM,” said another user.
One more user expressed, “It's a short term solution. But for long run, administration should focus more on improving cycling infrastructure inside the city and proper surveillance of vehicles should be carried out. ITMS should act effectively.”
