Bhubaneswar, June 19: The municipal corporation here is set to develop five new bus depots to accommodate 500 more vehicles in the coming years. At present the city has only one bus depot at Pokhariput.

In a recent development, the municipal commissioner and managing director of Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited Krishan Kumar wrote to the general administration department asking it to allot five acres of land at five places in the city to develop the new bus depots, each of which will accommodate nearly 100 buses.

According to sources, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has proposed Patrapada, Ghatikia, Patia, Nakhara and Pandara as locations for the new bus depots.

"According to the norms, five acres of land is required to build a bus depot," Kumar wrote.

A senior civic body official told The Telegraph that the decision to build more depots was taken to bring the city bus service on par with national and international benchmarks.

"According to the national benchmark for city bus service, 0.6 buses are needed for a population of one thousand," the official added.

At present, the city bus services are being maintained by the Bhubaneswar Puri Transport Services Limited, which has a fleet of 100 vehicles. As part of the smart city project, the city administration aims to increase the number of buses in the city by another 600.

Moreover, German firms are already in the process of assisting the city to revamp its transit services.

"We are focussing more on the public transport system under the smart city project. The city has a population of over 10 lakh and for this there is need of nearly 600 buses. We have begun developing the existing bus stops and the proposed bus depots are part of our endeavour to provide better transport services to the people," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.

"There is an urgent need to introduce more city buses. The present strength is not enough to cater to the needs of the people," said Sushil Tripathy, a corporate employee.

"A large number of people still depend on auto-rickshaws and the rapidly growing cab services, which are fleecing commuters. More buses have became a necessity for commuters," he said .

To upgrade the city bus service, the civic administration is also developing 100 bus sheds in addition to the proposed depots. The bus sheds are being revamped in public-private partnership mode and almost 90 per cent of the job has been completed.