Indore bus system gets Centre's go-ahead

The Central Sanctioning Committee (CSC) of Urban Devlopment ministry has given an in-principle approval to the ambitious Rs 868 crore Bus Rapid Transport System for Indore under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).  The project was approved at a meeting of CSC, headed by Union urban development secretary, Anil Baijal, in New Delhi last Friday.

Indore has come out ahead of Pune and Ahmedabad, with the committee sanctioning Rs 100 crore in the first phase for the implementation of BRTS on the Agra-Bombay Road in the city, as a pilot project. The comittee has approved only Rs 74 crore and Rs 64 crore for Pune and Ahmedabad respectively for their BRTS proposals.

Indore City Transport Services (ICTSL), the BRTS implementing authority, in its detailed project report had proposed three routes to be included in BRTS - the Riverside Road, A B Road and Ring Road. The CSC has sanctioned Rs 100 crore for the A B Road segment and asked the district collector to implement it as a pilot project within a year. The department would sanction the rest of the amount after reviewing the pilot project.

While the Indore district collector, Vivek Agrawal ICTSL's officer in-charge, Chandramauli Shukla, presented Indore's plan worth Rs 868 crore at Fridday's meeting, representatives from Pune and Ahmedabad put up proposals of Rs 800 crore and Rs 900 crore respectively, for their cities, a source present at the meeting said.