Availability of land is coming in the way of residents of Jamshedpur and its outskirts benefiting from a state-of-the-art bus terminus that is supposed to come up at Mango by July 2019.

The Rs 65-crore project seems to have hit a roadblock with East Singhbhum district administration telling I-Deck last week that it does not have more than 7.82 acre for the project when the Karnataka-based private consultant has said it needed at least 10 acres.

"The consultant required over 10 acres of land to accommodate various amenities at the interstate bus terminus (ISBT). However, we only have 7.82acre land that was with the Subernarekha Multi-purpose Project (under state water resource department). The SMP has agreed to transfer the land to the state urban development department for the ISBT," said East Singhbhum additional deputy commissioner (ADC) Sunil Kumar.

He also recalled that during its presentation at a stakeholders meeting, I-Deck had clarified it would not be able to compromise on the land requirement. "I-Deck officials have said that they cannot do with less than 10 acres. If things don't move forward, we will have to scour for land which will take time," added Kumar.

The terminus project received a fillip on July 18 when the cabinet decided to upgrade on PP mode bus terminuses in 15 cities and towns, including Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Bokaro, Dhanbad and Chaibasa.

Since the existing inter-state bus terminus at Sitaramdera in Jamshedpur cannot be expanded as it's hemmed in by residential areas, the state urban development department is planning a new terminus in Mango.

In fact, JUIDCO (Jharkhand Urban Infrastructure Development Company (JUIDCO) will be issuing global tenders for designing, building and operating the terminus this month. Construction, on PPP mode, is expected to be completed by July 2019.

The inter-state bus terminus is supposed to have include facilities like retail shops, food courts, hotels, banquet halls, commercial space for banks and offices, parking bays, a modern administrative building, workshops for minor repairs, tourist information centre, parcel and cloak rooms, digital display boards, and CCTV surveillance.

Over 30,000 people use as many as 400 buses operating out of the existing Sitaramdera bus terminus for destinations across Jharkhand, Bihar, Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha. But, residents have long felt the need for a bigger inter-state bus terminus with better facilities.

Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (JNAC), that manages the Sitaramdera terminus, has expressed it inability to expand it any further. "It is not possible to expand the existing bus terminus as it is hemmed in by residential areas all around," explained JNAC special officer Prabhat Kumar.

How can land crunch for projects be resolved in Jharkhand?

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