Passengers wait at an under-construction bus shelter near Capital Hospital Square. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 10: The municipal corporation has decided to construct 79 more bus shelters in the city in public private partnership (PPP) mode even though a majority of the existing shelters are yet to become fully functional.

At present, 139 buses ply in the city on 18 routes between 6am and 9pm.

“More shelters will help commuters,’’ said chief operating officer of Dream Team Shahara (DTS) Sudhsnshu Jena.

DTS is the company operating the city buses on behalf of the state government.

There are 80 bus shelters in the city now but more than half of these are either under construction or damaged or used very sparingly. Some, which had been damaged during the widening of roads, are in need of repairs.

Student and commuter Sipu Das said: “Not all the bus stops are in bad shape but many are lying neglected like the one near the postmaster general’s office opposite Indira Gandhi Park. It remains unused and encroached upon most part of the year.”

Homemaker Jasaswini Mohapatra said: “The civic authorities should try to complete all the bus shelters as soon as possible so that they can be used both by commuters and the bus operators.”

The civic authorities decided to add 79 more bus shelters because they felt that important areas such as Capital Hospital Square on the busy Airport-Nandankanan Road did not have a single bus stop despite 1,500 to 2,000 people visiting the hospital daily.

The newl route for the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Sijua near Ainginia does also not have any bus stop.

Deputy secretary and in-charge of tax collection in the BMC, Subhranshu Mishra, said: “The inclusion of the new bus shelters and renovation of the old ones will be taken up in public-private partnership mode. The sponsoring companies will pay for their display advertisements on the bus shelters and take up the work. They will follow a uniform design for all the shelters.”

“Forty-one of the existing 80 bus shelters are being renovated and the work will be completed within three months. The 79 new bus shelters will be completed within six months,” he said.

All the 159 bus shelters will have bus route numbers and bus timings on display boards. The expense on the electricity to be consumed by lights at these shelters will be borne from the money generated by advertising fees.