On the final leg of their tenure in the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) general body, corporators are all set to sail to Ahmedabad shortly to “study” the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) project. It has, however, not been decided whether all corporators would be part of the study team. “It has to be decided at an all-party meeting of floor leaders,” said Mayor M.V. Ratna Bindu.
Municipal Commissioner G. Ravi Babu said that the team comprising corporators and engineers would study the “successful implementation” of the BRTS project in Ahmedabad. As BRTS roads in the city were expected to be completed in the next couple of months, and buses would arrive in two months, the VMC would have to gear up by then and draw necessary plans for successful implementation of the project, he reasoned.
Mr. Ravi Babu said that the people of Ahmedabad were given a free ride in BRTS buses for nearly a month. And, the people of all walks of life, like doctors, engineers, students and businessmen, were specially invited to “experience the comfort” of travelling by BRTS buses. The Ahmedabad city administration awarded the Intelligent Traffic System (ITS) to an agency called UTL Services. ITS services include payment of bus fare through credit or debit card and by mobile phone. The machine would deduct the fare amount from the tariff paid to the service provider. The team would study these aspects and also modifications, if any, that could become necessary to suit the city needs. The Corporation would prepare an operational plan after the visit to Ahmedabad. The VMC would invite firms for implementation of the ITS, which would be an integral part of the BRTS project in the city. The study would help the Corporation officials in assessing the capabilities of firms that have expressed interest, Mr. Ravi Babu said.
