Bus port on the line of airport in offing

The Centre is planning to build bus ports — modern bus terminals — in major cities across the country on the line of airports for providing comfortable facilities to bus passengers.

The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has prepared a blueprint for bus ports and sought proposals from states.

The bus port or terminals will have facilities including lounge, Wi-Fi, exclusive arrival and departure for buses, modern cafeteria, shopping area, parking lots, luggage rooms and toilets, restrooms and ticket counters, an official in the Ministry told DH.

The ministry will fund for a few bus ports in each state, said the official. He added that the government has the potential to set up around 2,000 to 2,500 bus ports across the country. And that, the government seeks to set them up under Public Private Partnership (PPP) model instead of the state funding them.

Bus port is the brainchild of Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, who is aggressively pushing to promote public transport system to check growing number of vehicles on the road.

"The Centre will appoint consultants for designing and planning. The ministry is in talks with the World Bank and Asian Development Bank for funding," said the official.

In Gujarat, three modern bus terminals in Vadodara, Ahmedabad and Surat have been built with state funding, and elsewhere, too, bus ports can be developed on the same model, he said.

Several states have expressed the willingness to take up this project, he said, adding that both private and state-run transport buses can be used for it.

Earlier, Gadkari said that India was keen to replicate the London Transport Authority Model, and all public transport buses could be replaced with luxury buses and the common man can travel in them by paying 40% less fare compared to the current fare.

"If the automobile growth continues at the current level of 22% in India, we have to build one additional lane on the National Highway every third year, he said. Building one extra lane of national highways, the government have to spend Rs 80,000 crore, which is not feasible," Gadkari said.