Union Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath has sanctioned the manufacture and disbursement of 1080 buses for 13 cities.
A decision to this effect was taken in the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee meeting held on Tuesday.
The buses will be supplied to the 13 cities under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM).
Following are the cities that have been earmarked to receive the buses: Purnea (61); Darbhanga (53); Katihar (38); Bhagalpur (55); Karimnagar (70); Vasai-Virar (346); Latur (60); Jeypore-Koraput (40);
Cuttack- Choudwar (100); Balasore-Bhadrak (54);Patiala (50) Gangtok (53) and Agartala (100).
These cities have also been sanctioned projects relating to ancillary infrastructure viz. Depot, Workshops, ITS etc. for Urban Transport. In addition, ancillary infrastructure project for Bathinda has also been approved. The total estimated project cost for these 13 cities is approximately Rs.464 crore.
The state government has to procure these buses as per the urban bus specifications-II which have been prepared by the Ministry of Urban Development recently.
The first instalment of the Government of India share will be released to the State after submission of information / documents within three months as per the conditions given in bus funding guidelines.
The objective behind sanctioning of these buses is to improve the city transport system, to give Metro experience to public in these modern ITS enabled buses and to attract the public to use public transport.
The JNNURM buses will change the face of the Urban Transport of these 13 cities and will help in the overall growth of the state or union territory.
