AGRAITES GIVE GREEN LIGHT TO SMALLER BUSES

AGRA 29\05\2010 Small size buses are receiving positive feedback from the people as compared to the tata marco palo ones the mulling increasing their numbers in agra due to lack of space and traffic on the roads.
both kinds of buses are being run in the city under jawahar lal nehru national urban renewable mission (JNNURM) for reforming the condition of public transport in the first phase, the executing agency, uttar pradesh state road transport corporation launched the marco polo buses.
These buses failed to get a good response on various routes like dayalbagh and inner routes of kamala nagar area. According to officials, marco polo was facing problems because of its size while negotiating turns in different localities .small sized buses don t have such problems as they can travel with ease even during peak traffic hours. In the first week of may UPSRTC decided to introduce small sized buses after eight months of bringing in marco polo buses . According to UPSRTC officials, there are around 200 buses proposed for the city under JNNURM . Out of these ,75 buses are small sized ones for routes where marco polo buses are run on compressed natural gas (CNG) based fuel. presently around 18 tata marco polo buses and 20 small sized buses are being run in agra. six buses are being run on a route from inter state buses terminal (ISBT) to balkeshwar and then from bijalighar viawater works crossing. they also go to rajpur chungi and agra cantonment railway station. this system is on the basis of ring road and buses would return on the same route. " while marco polo buses need space travelling on road smaller buses need just half of it. six buses travelled from foundry nagar depot on sunday in the first phase. the number of buses are being increased as staff is being deputed for running the remaining buses after a feedback from the people " said vijay kumar grover assistant regional manager (ARM) of UPSRTC . a resisdent of sanjay nagar (rajpur chungi) ajay kumar gupta said , "earlier no buses could reach my area but with these small sized buses things have changed as they travel daily to my locality".