Transport committee chairman Narendra Borkar told media persons that the decision was taken to curb financial loss to the already cash-strapped NMC. “The NMC incurs over Rs100 crore loss every year due to operation of city bus service, with ticket revenue at Rs64 crore per annum,” he said.
TOI had recently reported that Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari was of the opinion that two public transport services—Metro Rail and city buses — should be operated by any one agency, which led NMC to go ahead with the proposal.
At present, NMC is operating Aapli Bus fleet of 438, including 237 standard buses, 150 midi, 45 mini and six electric buses, through three red bus and one electric bus operators.
“The NMC will hand over these 438 buses along with 40 electric buses to be procured under a central government scheme to MahaMetro, along with four bus operators, two ticketing agencies and the existing manpower of the transport department,” Borkar said.
Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) corporators Nitin Sathawane and Narendra Walde, who are transport committee members, opposed the move.
With a majority, BJP led panel okayed the move, which will now be tabled before the general body. Borkar claimed that the decision was taken by the civic administration headed by municipal commissioner Radhakrishnan B.
In 2017, NMC had entrusted three bus operators — RK City Bus Services, M/s Travel Time Bus Services, and M/s Hansa Bus Services — to run city bus service for 10 years. Besides, it has already started the process to procure 40 electric buses, for which it had already received a grant from the central government.
“Walde and Sathawane suggested that on the lines of NIT, MahaMetro too should have trustees comprising corporators from both ruling and opposition parties if they operate city bus service,” Borkar said, adding they have included their suggestion while approving the proposal.
“Being a policy decision, the panel forwarded the proposal to the general body from where it will be sent to the state government,” he said. If okayed, it will be forwarded to the central government from where MahaMetro may get a nod to operate the city bus service, he explained.
Commenting on the NMC proposal, MahaMetro managing director Brijesh Dixit said the agency would examine the proposal once NMC submits it.
“We are a special purpose vehicle (SPV) formed for executing Metro projects in the state. Running city buses was not part of our original brief. The NMC proposal will have to be put up before the board. The final decision will have to be jointly taken by central and state governments, as they are owners of MahaMetro,” he told TOI.
Meanwhile, the panel also gave its nod to giving 18 mini buses to MahaMetro on a daily rent of Rs3,500 each.
However, the panel took objection to the civic administration’s decision to hand over one electric bus to operate between Nagpur airport and Airport Metro station on a daily rental basis of Rs 4,500 without the nod of the transport committee. But later it okayed the proposal on the condition that MahaMetro will also share advertisement revenue on the bus with NMC.
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