Indore BRTS gets green signal

The Central Sanctioning Committee (CSC) of Urban Devleopment ministry has given an in-principle approval to Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) for Indore under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

The Rs 868-crore project was approved at CSC meeting headed by Anil Baijal, Union urban development secretary, in New Delhi on Friday.

The committee has sanctioned Rs 100 crore for the first phase of BRTS on Agra-Bombay Road for Indore and Rs 74 crore and Rs 64 crore for Pune and Ahmedabad respectively.

Indore City Transport Services Ltd (ICTSL), the BRTS implementing authority, has proposed inclusion of three routes in BRTS - the Riverside Road, A B Road and Ring Road.

The CSC has asked the district collector to implement the A B Road pilot project in a year.The department would sanction the remaining amount after reviewing the pilot project.

At the meeting, Indore district collector Vivek Agrawal and Chandramauli Shukla, ICTSL's officer in-charge, presented the city's plan worth Rs 868 crore.

Representatives from Pune and Ahmedabad proposed Rs 800 crore and Rs 900 crore respectively for the cities.

Union minister of state for urban development Ajay Maken also looked at the the ICTSL City Bus Project. Maken praised ICTSL's efforts and promised to give priority to the city's BRTS project. ICTSL would spend Rs 30 lakh a day to complete 12 km pilot project on AB Road in a year.