Overloaded Buses, Reckless Autos: Noida’s Everyday Peak Hour Circus @noidatrafficpol
Ashish Kedia TEN NEWS
(12/04/2017) Noida : If you think a 50 seater bus can utmost carry 55-60 passengers at a time, you cannot be more wrong about Noida’s public transport facilities.
During peak hour morning-evening rush most buses plying on Botanical Garden- Pari Chowk route have almost double number of passengers travelling in them.
Passenger vehicle guidelines are flouted and UPSRTC norms are ignored as demand-supply principle takes over every sense of safety and legality.
Lack of enough public transport facilities turns Noida roads into a free-for-all open dead-wall circus during these peak hours.
A large number of office-goers also deboard at Noida City Centre and tightly fit themselves in sharing auto’s. A 7-8 seater auto on this route normally carries 11-12 passengers at a time.
These gross violations of traffic rules and complete ignorance for public safety norms are nothing less than an open invitation to a ghastly accident.
We spoke to a regular traveller on Botanical-Parichowk route who said, “Obviously I do not like to travel standing all the way to Greater Noida. But these bus operators make it compulsory. Although there are good enough number of buses but the one that would be in front won’t leave until it has good enough number of standing passengers. During peak hour this cycle get followed by all buses hence its like go in one overcrowded bus or the other. So general public can’t change the situation”.
NMRC has introduced well-maintained AC buses on the route indeed the price-difference in fare keeps them out of bound for regular travellers. Many travellers say that reducing price of these AC buses would help in sharing passenger load on the road.
Similarly on City Centre to Sector-62 public auto-route the auto drivers take advantage of hurried office going crowds. Traffic police department does initiates regulatory drives from time-to-time but the menace remains unresolved.
It is high time that government of Uttar Pradesh as well as department of transport, Gautam Buddha Nagar ditrict take serious note of these issues.
