Srinagar, Apr 15: Despite having the bus bay facility on the City routes, the public transport buses resort to frequent stops at undesignated spots making the passengers waste their precious time while the authorities have failed to check this inconvenience faced by thousands everyday.
 Official figures reveal that there are no less than 62 bus bays in the City, particularly on the busy routes like the Batmaloo-Dalagte track and the Airport road.
 Still the bus drivers, as per the complainants resort to frequent stops. And this is being seen as a major cause of people reaching their destinations late.
 Take the case of MA Road, which connects the tourist hub of Dalgate with the Batmaloo. Even tough the route is equipped with the bus bays, the bus drivers often take a halt at their will.
 On an average, the passengers said, it takes them over half-an-hour to cover this distance of mere two odd miles.
 “The erring lot of drivers has taken us for a ride as our precious time goes waste in the snail’s pace travel,” said Showkat Ahmed of Kanipora.
 “But we shouldn’t blame the transporters alone because the traffic regulatory authorities have failed to come to the rescue of the poor commuters,” Ahmed added.
 Same is the problem on routes like the Airport road. From Humhama in the south City suburb, bus takes around an hour to reach Lal Chowk, which is at the distance of mere seven kilometres.
 “The travel is simply disgusting as we can’t reach our institution in time and subsequently we miss our classes,” said Suhail Ahmed, a Kashmir University student from Hyderpora.
 Take the Karan Nagar route. Even though there are designated bus stops on the way, the buses are hardly seen adhering to the guidelines.
 Sources said there was a proposal to construct 72 more bus bays in the City taking the total to 132. But due to non-compliance of specified bus halts, the idea has been shelved.
 Said an official working with Roads and Building department: “There’s a proposal to construct more bus bays, but the plan is being deferred because the already existing stops have proved useless… And  so authorities are apprehensive of further investments in it.”
 The Traffic police department, however, wants to shift the blame on the planners.
 “Most of the bus bays in the City are faulty, better say ill designed,” said a senior Traffic police official requesting not to be named.
 He said the stop has to be at-least 100 meters away from a junction. “But at places like Rambagh, the facility is faulty for being less than 100 feet from the junction,” the official added.
 When contacted the Superintendent of Police Traffic, Shokat Shah said the complaints of frequent stops had come to his notice.
 “We have been imposing Challan against the offenders,” Shah told Greater Kashmir.
 He, however, said the Traffic police would soon start an awareness campaign for “implementation of the bus stops”.
 “We are staring the drive in collaboration with an NGO, from MA Road,” the SP said.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 15 Apr 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 15 Apr 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:00:00 IST