Four bus routes lined up

GURGAON: Haryana Roadways has finalized four routes for the city bus service. There will be 12 buses on each route which will run in double shifts, at a frequency of 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, of the 175 new conductors who are supposed to join Gurgaon depot, over 30 had joined by Monday afternoon.Officials are hopeful to start the service by April-end. Roadways have made many significant improvements in the new service.At present, there are only 12 buses under the city bus service for the entire Gurgaon region which only ply for eight hours and are available at an interval of 45 minutes. Moreover, all the buses were running on only route: from IFFCO Chowk to Bus Stand via MG Road, covering major parts of the city.
In the new service, there will be 48 buses and they will run for 16 hours, from 6 am to 10pm in eight hours shifts each, reducing the frequency to 20 minutes.Now, 12 buses will run on each of the four routes including the existing one and another between IMT Manesar to Karol Bagh via Delhi-Gurgaon expressway and Dhaula Kuan.Haryana Roadways general manager (Gurgaon), Yashendra Singh, said that besides these 48 buses, 19 others which are already running on certain selected city routes would be retained. “Effectively, there will be 67 buses for the city bus service,” Singh added.
Singh informed that new conductors had started joining the office. Thirty reported to Gurgaon depot by 2 pm on Monday. Altogether, 175 will join office. Singh added that all of them would be given a week’s training before induction.On the question of providing bus shelters for the new service, the GM said they were to be built by HUDA and the MCG in their respective areas. The department’s next agenda will be to create this facility. “But we can’t stop buses from plying because of unavailability of bus shelters. Till the time the facility is created, passengers can flag down the bus anywhere on the road to board/de-board,” he added.