MYBUS
Urban Transport
Improvement initiative of Bhopal
Introduction
With launch of Jawaharlal Nehru
Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) at National level, Bhopal Municipal Corporation took
this as an opportunity to improve & develop a long term Urban Transport
Infrastructure covering the entire area and population of the city with an
effectively designed urban road infrastructure promoting efficient public transport
System such as BRT/MRT along with Non-Motorized Traffic (NMT) and the
pedestrian facilities as well as improving the surface condition of the roads.
With unconditional support
from Government of India & State government Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC)
has been very keen in the up-gradation and enhancement of public transport in
the city of Bhopal; It has embarked upon the idea of BRTS for the city of
Bhopal.
Longest BRTS Corridor in the core area of the city sanctioned under JNNURM
LAUNCH OF “MYBUS”
The Hon. Chief
minister of Madhya Pradesh Sh. Shivraj Singh Chouhan launched the “MyBus”
on Friday, 27 th September in a
grand ceremony held at 10am at ‘MyBus’ Bus depot, Near Sehore Naka in Sant
Hirdaram Nagar and dedicated “MyBus” services to the public of Bhopal
city by inaugurating the country’s longest 24 KM long BRTS corridor (From
Misrod to Bairagarh ) passing through the heart of the Bhopal city, that will
ensure hassle-free bus ride though the middle of the city. Now the Citizens of
Bhopal would have premium local public transport from Friday as MyBus services
on newly constructed Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) has begin on Friday with
dedication of the corridor to the public. The bus services were free of cost on
the first day.
In his brief
address, Chouhan said the “MyBus” services on the BRT corridor would not
only reduce the use of private vehicles thereby cleaning the environment but it
would also make travel cheaper and faster and we are making the premium class
public transport cheaper here”, he said. He also added that the 20 A.C. low
floor buses shall provide a comfortable ride on the corridor and the women
& elderly people will also be benefited by this. Emphasizing that Bhopal
would soon emerge as the fastest developing city in the country, Chouhan agreed
to the request put forth by Bhopal Mayor that the state government would provide
Rs. 15 crore for maintenance of the MyBus service in Bhopal and further added
that “I have always said this and I will repeat it again that shortage of money
will never come in the way of Bhopal’s development. I will always be supportive
towards developmental projects here” he said.
The Sate Urban Development
Minister Sh.Babulal Gaur, Home Minister Sh. Umashankar Gupta, Member of Parliament
Sh.Kailash Joshi, Mayor Smt. Krishna Gaur, local MLA’s Sh.Druv Narayan Singh, Sh.Vishwas
Sarang, Sh.Jitendra Daga and other eminent persons of the Bhopal city were present
on the occasion along with all the higher officials of the district
administration and Urban Administration & Development Department.
Over the last few months,
Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been conducting Dry/trial runs on the
BRTS corridor with air-conditioned low-floor buses and other low floor buses. The
dry run of BRTS buses started from 1st june 2013 and trial run of BRTS buses started
from 15th june 2013.
FEATURES OF “MYBUS”
MyBus services shall be equipped with
state of art GPS system, Passenger information system, Passenger announcement
system, CCTV cameras and other safety features. Bus priority signaling system
and pedestrian crossing signal system shall be provided. There is a provision
of Zebra crossing for the movement of pedestrians to reach the bus stop/cross
the road. Push button traffic signal will be installed at each zebra crossing
location where the pedestrian can push the button and the traffic light will
give a green signal at a predetermined time gap to allow for safe passage. The
signals will be synchronized with sensors to give priority to BRTS bus and
pedestrians. The road sign of pedestrian crossing is also being installed for
vehicle drivers to see and watch the pedestrian crossing. All low floor buses
will be tracked in control room on real time basis. The vehicle tracking unit
devices have been installed on all the buses. GPS receiver modules, for bus
stop announcement in the buses have also been installed on all the buses. The
system has been planned & supported to maintain and monitor information for
enhancing the performance of MyBus Services of BCLL and commuter satisfaction.
The focus of planned Intelligent Transport System (PITS) is to automate the
BCLL’s MyBus operations utilizing a GPS based vehicle Tracking & GIS based
monitoring System and thereby improving the frequency and the service level
benchmarks of the system. This shall ensure efficient utilization of fleet and
hence, reduce the cost of operations through various reports generated such as
idling report, bus over speeding reports, activity reports and violation reports
on daily basis to be analyzed & rectified critically.
In this process MyBus services shall
be able to provide better transport services to the commuters and by reducing
the cost of operation directly & indirectly and thereby contribute in the improvement
of the national economy. Dedicated Squads for Safety and Efficiency of Bus
Operation has been deployed.
The BRTS low floor bus service in
Bhopal has been named as MYBUS. A Contest was held for naming the bus service
in which 1150 entries were received from the residents. MYBUS given by One of
the residents was selected and he would be awarded Rs. 11000 for his best entry
Challenges faces & Hindrances overcome during Implementation
During planning & initial implementation of developing
physical infrastructure for pilot corridor BRT, there were various challenges
which were faced. As the sanctioned corridor was passing from the center of the
city encompassing & facilitating major activity zones of the city such as
Misrod Square, ISBT, Habibganj Railway Station, Board Office Square, the CBD of
New Market Area, Polytechnic Square, a major bottle neck of the city the kamla
Park earthen bund between the Upper lake & Lower lake of the Bhopal city
passing through the old precincts of historic Bhopal and heading towards the
lalghati Square (to airport) & Halalpur Bus Stand which finally ends at
Bairagadh Area which is again an important Commercial area. The construction of
the corridor was itself a challenge with various hindrances in the proposed ROW
of 30 M wide corridor. BMC removed these hindrances and shifted many structures,
utilities, trees etc. Bhopal Municipal Corporation has been successful in
handling with all these hindrances through continuous dialog and co-ordination with
the public & stake holders of the project and completed the project as per
the timelines given by the state govt.
Bhopal is a greener city popularly known as city of
lakes, enjoys a very good share of per capita green open space as compared to
the other similar size cities. For this very reason & the aspirations of
the public to conserve Bhopal as green city Bhopal Municipal Corporation took
up the challenge to Transplant trees which come in the proposed ROW of the
corridor and not cutting them for the sake of construction. As many as 306 important huge Trees have been
transplanted and 6000 plants have been planted for compensatory a-forestation. 903
electric poles and transformers were shifted from the proposed ROW for the
construction of the corridor. There were several Encroachments within the
proposed corridor which were removed through a dedicated drive and a total no
of more than 100 structures were identifies most of them with religious
Importance also, as many as 75 of these 100 have already been shifted. Bhopal Municipal
Corporation was fortunate enough to get huge public support on the matter a few
to quote shall comprise of People willing gave over their premise land which
was coming in the way of BRTS to BMC.
Successful BRTS Bus operations on PPP Basis
Bhopal city link limited formed a SPV under the Bhopal
Municipal Corporation to appoint MyBus operator for the bus services to ply on
the BRTS corridor on Net -Cost Basis Contract. Operates shall pay Upfront Fee –
38% of the cost of buses deployed for respective cluster. Bus operation is
based on Net Cost Contract offer on premium/subsidy per bus per month besides
38% investment towards Bus cost operator shall be liable to operate & maintain
the entire fleet & assets under the project.
Citizen accepted MyBus with happiness
Citizen
of Bhopal are very happy to have a safe, comfortable and fast public transport. MyBus has got a huge response
from public. Even during trial run MyBus was having 30000 passengers per day
but after launching of AC buses also it increased tremendously. MyBus is
depicting a new success story in urban transport.
