Complaints greet Khan at JBS

When APSRTC Vice-Chairman and Managing Director A.K. Khan made his maiden visit to Jubilee Bus Station (JBS) on Friday, he was welcomed with a plethora of complaints by the corporation employees.

Right from lack of sufficient drinking water to poor maintenance of rest rooms, drivers and conductors listed out many problems. “I came from Giddalur today morning. Forget about taking bath, there is no sufficient drinking water here,” complained S.A. Samad, a driver who pointed to a defunct tap.

About 60 outstation drivers and conductors take relax in the restroom everyday. There are eight bathrooms in the restroom and only three are maintained well, the remaining are in unhygienic condition, said Sairam, another driver.

Admitting the poor maintenance of crew restrooms, Mr. Khan said emphasis would be laid on improving crew and passenger amenities at stations. During his one hour inspection at JBS, he interacted with employees, passengers and others.

Maintenance of CCTVs

The objective was to check the punctuality of buses, passenger and crew amenities, security and other aspects. When questioned about replacing the defunct closed circuit television cameras, he replied instructions would be issued to authorities to maintain them properly.

There are 18 platforms in JBS and everyday about 1,300 uses are operated to different areas, particularly Telangana region. Due to limited platforms at the station, regular traffic jams are witnessed and the situation turns worse during holiday season.

Reacting to this, he said each depot had been designed to handle only 100 buses but with increasing needs, each depot was now handling over 160 buses. This would eventually result in congestion, he explained.

However, this problem would be addressed as new bus depots at Kacheguda, Bandlaguda, Chengicherla and other areas would be launched shortly. Authorities further added that the proposal to construct four new platforms at JBS was approved and construction would commence very soon.

Mr. Khan said that there was a need to improve services connecting MMTS stations. This apart, things need to be planned about operating services to Metro Rail stations and a detailed study would be conducted about this aspect, he added.