As the city bus service from Bhopal to Mandideep and Bilkisganj is stopped, passengers are worried about the transportation. Both routes were out of municipal corporation (25 km) area. Following the orders of High Court, Bhopal City Link Limited (BCLL) has withdrawn its services on these routes from Tuesday evening. On Wednesday, many passengers were seen on road waiting for the bus. Even many passengers complaint on helpline number after not sighting the buses on road. Bus operators and officials involved in the BCLL bus service are discussing their further strategy to get a stay from the court. In it’s verdict, Jabalpur High Court has ordered not to ply city (metro) buses being operational under Amrit Yojana outside the municipal limits. The High Court cancelled the order of the state government, in which permission was given to operate city buses within a radius of 25 kilometers outside the municipal limits. The court said in its order that the scheme under which the said order was issued has not been gazetted. Gazette notification of the scheme is necessary under Section 99 of the Motor Vehicle Act. The High Court has issued orders to all the municipal corporations including Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior, Jabalpur, where city buses operate.

 

According to schedule, 46 buses were being run from Gandhi Nagar to Chirayu Hospital and Mandideep while 12 buses were running for Bilkisganj. Now, BCLL has withdrawn its bus service on these routes that has affected around 40,000 passengers. Bus schedule for Mandideep will be commuting till Misrod urban area while buses scheduled for Bilkisganj will be running till Nilbad only. These buses would not be moving to Ratibad. There are many routes in city including Mandideep where large number of local passengers travel everyday via bus. Around 40 people including students, working people for industries, plants, service class etc travel for Mandideep from Bhopal every day. On Tuesday evening, these buses asked passengers to board off at the border of municipal corporation area which was a surprise for the passengers. Buses that were earlier commuting from Gandhi Nagar to Mandideep is now commuting from Gandhi Nagar to Samardha only. However, this has raised the importance of local city buses run by private operators. Taking advantage of the situation, private buses are now charging additional amount from passengers. For travelling from MP Nagar to Mandideep, people were charged only Rs 30 per passenger.

 

Now local buses are charging Rs 45 per passenger. There are 368 buses on 24 routes of Bhopal city. On an average 1.5 lakh people every day travel in city buses and maximum fare on all routes for a passenger is Rs 45. Two years back on August 24, 2021, Government declared to run buses in 25 km of area out of Bhopal city. Then collector Avinash Lavania appealed for gazette notification to choose routes like Kanhasaiya, Hinautia, Bagroda, Ratibad, Sukhi Sewania, Phanda, Parwalia, Eitkhedi, Acharpura, Nayapura, Badjhiri, etc. But gazette notification could not be released by the concerned ministry.