LUDHIANA: To satiate the demand raised by three Congress councillors, mayor Balkar Sandhu has asked the city bus operator to start a city bus service on Ferozepur Road route, while passing through Sarabha Nagar, BRS Nagar, Rajguru Nagar , and Barewal. Initially, two mini-buses will ply on this route at an interval of one hour. This route was closed around two years ago by the operator after he failed to find passengers in these posh localities.Congress councillors Hari Singh Brar, Sheela Kapoor, and Pankaj Kaka had asked the mayor to get the service restarted on this route, followed by which the mayor asked officials to consult the contractor for plying buses as soon as possible. The expected route of the buses will be from Barewal, Ishmeet Academy towards BRS Nagar, Orient Cinema, Sarabha Nagar, and then Aarti Chowk on Ferozepur Road, to reach the bus stand.The mayor said there was a demand to start the city bus service on this route through three councillors, and he had asked the operator to start the service. He said they would begin with two buses initially, and then they would work out means to increase the number of travellers. The operation manager of Horizon Connect Transways Private Limited (handling the city bus service) Jaskirat Singh said they were about to finalize the route, and most probably by the end of the week, they would start the buses on the route.Notably, the city bus service was introduced on this route in October 2015 and closed in July 2016, when there were less passengers on this route. Out of 83 buses which were handed over to the private operator, only 60 are on the road, and as of now, only five routes are operational in the city. The most successful route is from the railway station to Metro near Jalandhar Bypass.Sources revealed that mayor Balkar Sandhu will flag off old mini-buses on this route within this week, and the service will begin after that. The councillors who have demanded buses on this route will finalize the date after discussing with the mayor.Already, less people are expected to travel on this route in the city bus, because the buses will pass through posh localities. When the service is with a gap of one hour, people are not going to wait for the bus to travel to the destination.Also, work on the elevated road project has started on Ferozepur Road, and at various locations, barricading has been done by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). There are chances of traffic jams on this road, especially within MC limits.

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