AURANGABAD: While the protoype for city buses is almost ready with the first lot requiring the nod from concerned authorities for its dispatch, neither the civic administration nor elected representatives have made any provision for setting up bus-stops across the city.The widespread network of designated bus-stops will not only ensure desired occupancy in the buses, it will also act as potential hubs for advertising and in turn fill up the cash-strapped civic administration’ coffers.The Aurangabad Smart City Development Corporation Limited (ASCDCL) has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Maharashtra State Road Transportation Corporation (MSRTC) to operate the services of the 100 diesel-run buses that are expected to hit the roads by December . As a part of the MoU signed between ASCDCL and MSRTC, the latter is expected to provide a workforce of 400 as well as parking facility for which ASCDCL will pay fixed monthly instalments to the MSRTC.However, the agreement has not elaborated upon the bus-stops to be provided. The MoU simply mentions that the ASCDCL will provide the desired facilities without giving any further detail.The proposed public transport will also boast of 50 electric buses as was announced by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis during his visit to the city on October 10.Sharad Advant from the advocacy group Marathwada Janta Vikas Parishad said Aurangabad Municipal Corporation as well as the district administration should start working on raising a network of bus-stops for the upcoming public transportation within the municipal limits as well as the outskirts.“AMC had its own city bus service more than a decade ago. Some of the bus stops raised during that time now lies in tatters. Since the city has expanded vastly in the last one dacde, the location for bus-stops needs to be identied. With the first fleet of buses set to arrive by December, authorities have little time in hand to provide bus-stops considering procedural delays and other technical issues,” said Advant.When contacted, Aurangabad deputy mayor Vijay Autade said bus-stops would come up in different parts of the city under the smart city mission soon. “It has been proposed that the bus stops will be digital ones and have state-of-the-art facilities. Agencies will be appointed shortly after following the set procedure. If everything goes as per plan, the city will have bus-stops before the first week of December,” said Autude.Shiv Sena leader and head of the civic administration’s standing committee Raju Vaidya said efforts would also be taken to turn bus-stops into a source of revenue generation for the civic body. “In metro cities like Mumbai, bus-stops generate a considerable revenue for the local municipalities besides serving passengers. We will try to replicate similar models in Aurangabad,” he said.

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