State govt rapped for inertia on urban public transport

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh may boast of having the largest number of ongoing metro rail projects in the country but its bus service – the second largest public mass transport system after railways — continues to be in a mess. This indictment comes from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

In its 2017 report on Urban Transport in UP, CAG has criticised the Uttar Pradesh government, for showing no sense of urgency in tackling the problem.

The official apathy has resulted in the state government’s failure to utilise Rs 445.67 crore out of the total Rs 550 crore provided to it by the Centre to expand and spruce up public transport, the CAG report said.

The reason was an “inactive Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (UMTA)”, the report indicated. Almost nine years after its inception in 2010, UMTA headed by chief secretary has held only three meetings so far with the last one on March 2018. UMTA was formed to oversee and regulate the operation of bus services in seven cities.

Most cities vie for a metro rail service – a coveted tag but one of the most expensive modes of

transport. But the fact remains that buses continue to be the backbone and key to the city transit system.

Consequently, in keeping with the ministry of urban development’s mandate under JNNURM to provide an efficient, reliable and cost-effective public transport solution, seven UP cities were provided Rs 217.17 crore to purchase 1,140 buses. The UP State Roadways Transport Corporation set up six Urban Transport Companies (UTCs), namely in Agra-Mathura, Allahabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut and Varanasi to ply these buses. The CAG undertook the audit of three of these cities — Lucknow (300 buses), Kanpur (300), Agra-Mathura (260), as they were allocated Rs 152.56 crore (or 70.25%) of the Rs 217 crore under the Centre’s scheme.

While 12 to 24% of the buses in Lucknow remained off road on an average due to poor repair and maintenance, the figure ranged between 34 and 78% in Kanpur and two to three per cent in AgraMathura, said the CAG report. In the absence of spare parts, 42 buses in Lucknow and 19 in Kanpur were cannibalised (their parts were used to keep other buses in service).

“There seems to be suspected collusion of senior officials of UTCs with the contractor (for maintenance) as they could have avoided the expenditure of Rs 5.69 crore on the rehabilitation of 48 cannibalised buses,” the report alleged.

The report further indictd these UTCs (Lucknow and Kanpur) for operating buses on 83 unauthorised routes. The study recommended installation of GPS-based Intelligent Transport System to keep a check on their routes and provide timely information and assistance to passengers. “Establishment of UMTA is a mandatory prerequisite under the new metro policy to ensure complete integration of various multi-modal transport services and provide first-to-last mile connectivity to the commuters,” said a senior urban department official, requesting anonymity.

He said the findings of the report were being taken up and corrective measures would be taken soon.