Bhubaneswar: Technology-driven, citizen friendly Mo bus service of The Capital Region Urban Transport (CRUT), an Odisha government initiative has been adjudged as the “Best City Bus Service Project” in the country. This award for CRUT was declared today at Urban Mobility India (UMI) Conference and Expo organised by the urban development ministry, Govt. of India.
With the theme of ‘Accessible and Liveable Cities’, the 12th edition of UMI conference & Expo was held in Lucknow from 15th to 17th November. The conference is an excellent platform for
the exchange of ideas and experiences for peer learning and mutual benefits. The event was hosted by the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs in association with Uttar Pradesh Metro
Rail Corporation Limited.
Today, in the concluding ceremony of the conference, rewards were declared for different categories of Urban Mobility initiative. The best city bus award was given to Mo Bus of Bhubaneswar.
In view of the success of CRUT, Managing Director of CRUT, Mr. Arun Bothra was specially invited to make a presentation on the success story of Mo Bus. Mr Bothra gave presentation
in a session yesterday in UMI conference. Talking about the success story of MoBus, he said, “Taking forward the vision of Hon’ble Chief Minister of Odisha, Shri Naveen Patnaik to provide
safe, affordable and sustainable public transport to the citizens of Capital Region of Odisha, Mo Bus has touched remarkable feat of 1 lakh ridership in less than one year of operation.
Mr Bothra highlighted that consumer friendly initiatives like ‘Freedom Monthly Pass’, ‘Newspaper on Wheels’ and installation of maps and route numbers at Bus Queue Shelters (BQS) have been appreciated by riders. Operational measures like ‘Introduction of Night Out schedule’ at Cuttack has helped us in saving substantially by eliminating dead kilometres.
He further added that public transport like Mo Bus is a service for the people while making an endeavour to minimize the carbon footprints. “It is not a profit making initiative.” Mr Bothra compared Mo Bus with metro rail in other states. He said that metro should be made in big cities like Mumbai, Kolkata and New Delhi only. “We need buses not metros in smaller cities.” He gave example of cities like Lucknow and Kochi where average daily ridership in metro is 50000. He further emphasised, “For building 1 KM of metro network, Rs.250 crore is spent on an average. At a fraction of this cost incurred in comparison to metro rail, today Mo
Bus has around average 85000 footfall consistently every day.”
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Surendra Kumar Bagde, IAS and General Manager, Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) said Mo Bus model should be emulated by other States.“All STUs (State Transport Undertaking) should learn from CRUT, Bhubaneswar. Odisha was severely affected by cyclone Fani in the month of May. Inspite of the damages incurred during the cyclone, it is commendable that they achieved 1 lakh
ridership in just five months.”
Other participants present on the occasion also expressed happiness on the success of Mo Bus. Dr. Surendra Kumar Bagde and Mr Arun Bothra invited other state teams to visit
Bhubaneswar to see the actual operation of Mo Bus and emulate the same in respective states. On the concluding day, Shrimati Dipti Mahapatro, General Manager, CRUT & Chandan
Mishra, Manager, Operations attended the conference.
A manual ‘Bhubaneswar on the move’, Tools and guidelines for city bus operations was launched on this occasion. German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), a German
agency has published this in collaboration with CRUT. The manual talks about Organisation Development, Transit Planning & Scheduling, and Training & Capacity Development of CRUT.
Over 1000 delegates are participating in the 3-day conference-cum-expo concluded today.
Comments are closed.