MC officials hopeful to resume city bus service in January

As the much awaited bids for the selection of new firms were opened, the Municipal Corporation officials are expressing hope to resume the city bus service as the earliest. Though only two firms have applied for online tenders, the Municipal Corporation was expecting more bidders as it had also soften the conditions for tenders.

According to preliminary report, the bidders have submitted the required document as per claims of the officials and they expressed hope that buses will be plying on roads in January. The officials concerned claimed that the documents will be forwarded to the consultant following which the financial bids maybe opened next week.

Manager of city bus service, Baljeet Singh said that two firms have -Satkar & Company and Kisan Motors showed their interest to operate and maintain the city buses that are not plying on the roads since July.

Ludhiana City Bus Service Limited that is a part of MC has floated the tenders for operation and maintenance of buses under the net cost contract (NCC) model again by making the conditions soft as no bidder had fulfilled the required conditions last month. Residents have been suffering due to non-plying of city buses as they are being forced to pay more in autos while travelling to different areas of city.

MC has also introduced the new routes but the buses could not travel on these routes as the authorities were finding a new firm. Earlier, Prasanna Purple Mobility Solutions, which was operating and maintaining the buses, had refused to operate the city buses as the LCBSL failed to release pending dues of around Rs 2.5 crore.

Assistant commissioner Satwant Singh said, “We have opened the bids as two bidders showed interest to operate and maintain the buses. We will check the documents and will forward these to our consultant. After fulfilling all the requirements, we will open the financial bids. I am hopeful that the buses will be plying on road in January.”