Two dilapidated bus stops at Kharavela Nagar in Bhubaneswar. Pictures by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 14: Tardy progress of work on rest sheds, especially for bus commuters, and poor maintenance of the existing ones have irked residents.

Last year in August, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation had decided to come up with as many as 159 rest sheds across the city. The work was supposed to be over by the end of this year.

A civic body official said construction of 95 rest sheds had been over while the rest would be completed by March next year.

“The construction is delayed at a few places due to the ongoing expansion of roads. Besides, at other places, the location of the rest sheds needs to be changed with consultation of the traffic wing of police,” said project officer of the corporation Srimanta Mishra.

Once the road job gets done, the rest sheds will be built accordingly, said a corporation official.

However, the residents alleged that those sheds, which were being used after completion, were not being maintained properly. Besides, most of the operational rest sheds do not have the drinking water facilities as promised.

“Commuters and passers by often tend to litter the rest sheds. But, the civic body is not cleaning them at regular intervals. Sometimes, we have to wait for buses under the sheds for long. At that time, the absence of the drinking water facilities compound our woes,” said commuter Akash Behera.

Moreover, during the heavy shower this monsoon, the completed rest sheds failed to serve their purpose, prompting commuters to express their dissatisfaction.

“This monsoon, the city received torrential rainfall on a number of days. During heavy shower, the rest sheds were supposed to come handy for commuters and passers by. But everyday, we have to suffer a lot as there is no proper rest shade for the commuters,” said Swadhin Satpathy, another resident.

The corporation officials admitted that the sheds, at many places, had remained ill maintained for quite a few months. However, it woke up to the situation only after receiving several complaints from residents and commuters regarding poor maintenance of the rest sheds.

On this, Mishra said: “We have constituted a squad to visit the sheds. It would submit its report in another week.”

Earlier, the corporation had built 50 such utilities in a public-private partnership mode. However, lack of maintenance, along with flawed planning, took a toll on those as well. Most of them are now lying in a dilapidated condition, because of faulty design and encroachments.

With the city bus service turning out to be the lifeline in Bhubaneswar, the residents demand for completion of the construction of the rest sheds at the earliest possible.

Last year, the corporation took up the project in public private partnership mode. The civic body has roped in 16 firms to build the sheds. The private partners would also earn revenue through display advertisements. In turn, the civic body will collect licence fee from the private partners.