Bus shelters flayed for ‘improper’ design, location

Punjab legislative assembly’s deputy leader of opposition Bharat Bhushan Ashu raised questions over the construction of new bus queue shelters during the meeting of the vigilance and monitoring committee headed by Member of Parliament (MP) Ravneet Singh Bittu at the Circuit House on Wednesday.

Besides, Independent MLA Balwinder Singh Bains also raised objections over the new bus queue shelters at or near intersections during the meeting. The MC officials were tight-lipped over the issue.

Raising questions over the current design of the newly bus queue shelters, Ashu claimed the municipal corporation (MC) had paid Rs 1.5 crore as consultancy fee to Mudra, a consultant company, for design of bus queue shelters in the city. He said the design should be the same as recommended by the consultant company.

Sources say the bus shelters’ design is different at various locations. Ashu said, “If new bus shelters are constructed as per the recommended design, it is fine, otherwise the matter should be probed as MC had paid a huge amount to the consultant for design.”

“Why are the MC officials silent over the issue?” he said. He showed photos of the newly constructed bus queue shelters.

During the meeting, Independent MLA Balwinder Singh Bains questioned as to why new bus queue shelters were being constructed at the intersections. He claimed that advertisements were displayed on the incomplete bus queue shelters too.

At the meeting, MC commissioner GK Singh Dhaliwal assured that the civic body would take necessary steps and remove the violations, if any. He said the company would start displaying the advertisements as per the guidelines of the advertisement regulatory committee. However, he said, the bus queue shelters are according to the master plan.

It is worth mentioning here that in 2015, the finance and contract committee (FCC) had given approval to the Greenline firm for construction of 82 bus queue shelters where the firm can display advertisements.

Since the commencement of the bus shelters’ construction, road safety activists and a BJP councillor have been raising objections as they allege that the bus shelters violate the outdoor advertising bylaws 2014 and are against the commuters’ safety.

The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) has recently appointed two local commissioners for the inspection of new bus queue shelters. Earlier, BJP councillor Inder Agarwal had alleged that the new bus queue shelters are not according to the design approved by the Mudra.