Jaipal Reddy visits Bus Pavilions at Auto Expo
S Jaipal Reddy visits the stalls of Bus Manufacturers at Auto Expo, New Delhi
S Jaipal Reddy, Union Minister for Urban Development visited the Bus pavilions at Auto Expo at Pragati Maidan. Speaking on the occasion Mr Reddy stated that he was impressed by the choice of buses with focus on needs of common people. Reiterating his commitment towards improving the levels of urban public transport with a view to reduce the use of private transport, pollution and congestion, he mentioned that Ministry has tried to encourage use of low floor and semi-low floor buses which provide the metro experience in terms of comfort, efficiency and punctuality.
Referring to the second Economic Stimulus Package, the Minister said that the Union Government for the first time decided to fund buses for Urban Transport under JNNURM and a total of 15,260 buses were sanctioned at an estimated cost of Rs 4723.93 crores for 61 Mission cities across the country. All these buses would be modern, low floor and semi low floor with various Intelligent Transport System features as per the Urban Bus Specifications formulated by the Ministry of Urban Development. These buses will transform the urban bus transport scene across India.
Major Automobile manufacturers like Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors, Volvo, Eicher and Merceds-Benz have showcased their high tech and high capacity user friendly buses at the Auto Expo in order to procure orders from various State Governments for purchase of buses under JNNURM.
Under the second stimulus package announced by the Government on 2nd January 2009, it had been decided that States would be provided assistance under the JNNURM for the purchase of buses in the form of grant. The financing is meant exclusively for city bus service and Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) for all Mission cities. The funding of buses under JNNURM will give a boost to automobile industry. The funding is shared by the Centre, States and the Municipal Bodies. The size of the Central allocation depends on the population density of the recipient Mission cities.
