Half of targeted bus shelters remain on paper

Ameerpet: The possibility of completing the construction of bus shelters across the city before the monsoon seems farfetched. There are nearly 1,500 bus stops across the city and 1,526 bus shelters were sanctioned before the bifurcation of the state and some of the old bus shelters were handed over by APSRTC to GHMC.

In many places there is no proper bus shelters at a bus stop and people are forced to stand on the roadside in scorching sun and in rain. In some places some bus stops have simply disappeared and now there is no designated spot to bus drivers to stop the bus. In some places there is separate lane has been made for the buses to stop exact at the bus stop shelters. The aged, the physically challenged and the school-going children find it very difficult to stand on roads in odd weather conditions.

There are no proper bus shelters in some bus stops between Miyapur to Madhapur and there are so many bus shelters in areas such as Jubilee hills, Banjara Hills, Khairatabad and Somajiguda. There is no proper bus stop as well as bus shelters in some places like Himayatnagar, Ashok Nagar, Beeramguda and Hayatnagar. People take shelter under trees on the road side till they get the bus.

Speaking to the The Hans India, Ramesh, Project In-charge of bus shelters, GHMC, said, "600 bus shelters have been built and 226 are under construction across the city and we don't have feasibility to construct the bus shelters in some areas due to many reasons."

He said that so many issues they are facing while constructing the bus shelters across the city. "We will cancel the contract of the contractors who are not maintaining the conditions of the bus shelters across the city," he warned.

Delay in constructing the bus shelters is attributed to contractors who are facing opposition from commercial establishments in areas like Punjagutta and Ameerpet. Some shops have raised objection to overhead awnings of bus shelters could block them from the people's eye.

At other areas, traffic police has raised concerns over obstructions in traffic movement and they said that bus shelters should be constructed 100 to 150 feet away from the traffic signals on the streets as it obstructs free flow of traffic, officials said. The traffic police sent a request to GHMC to relocate 47 bus shelters that are close to the traffic signals as it causes traffic jams

In some areas like Uppal, Ramanthapuram and other areas of East zone, there is road widening work is going on and we will take up the work of construction of the bus shelters once they have finished the road widening works, officials said.

In some areas, roads are very narrow around 30 feet and we cannot construct the bus shelters as bus shelters on both sides would occupy a major part of the road, officials said.