THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Another hyped project that could have benefitted thousands of non-Malayalis in the capital is gathering dust owing to the sheer apathy of authorities. The Unique Numbering System for Bus Routes (UNSBR), announced in March 2016, has hit a major roadblock due to fund crunch.
The project was mooted following a marked increase in the influx of migrant labourers into the state, including non-Malayalis in Technopark, during the last few years.
Yogendra Jajapuria, a Uttar Pradesh native working in an MNC at Technopark, said many of the non-Keralites were literally living on an island as they cannot travel due to language barrier. “Our company has more than 100 employees from other parts of the country. One can’t always resort to Uber or Ola to travel to Alappuzha, Munnar and other tourist hubs. We need public transport services. Unfortunately, all the buses here have name boards in Malayalam. Numbering a bus is a great alternative and we need that,” Jajpuria said.
According to G R Rajeev Krishnan, secretary, Prathidhwani, an NGO for the welfare of Technopark employees, around 40 per cent of employees in the IT park is from other states.
“Many of them can’t identify a public transport bus to their destinations. In Bengaluru and Chennai, passengers board a bus based on the route number. That makes travel easy. Despite the influx of the migrant population, we are stuck in the old system. However, we plan to raise the issue soon”, Rajeev said.
Different zones
As per the project, the district was divided into four zones, with a unique number for each zone. If Thiruvananthapuram city is marked with blue boards, Attingal will bear red and Nedumangad green boards. It was planned to give buses to Neyyatinkara yellow boards. Besides this, information about the routes will also be displayed at bus stations. The project was designed by the students of Department of Management Studies of Kannur University.
It was the then District Collector Biju Prabhakar who approached DMS students to implement the project in the city after evaluating its success at Kannur and Kozhikode.
The project was to be implemented in different phases. In the first phase, 860 buses in the district were to be covered. This includes 760 KSRTC and 100 private buses.
Sources said at least 3000 boards were needed for the 1,000-odd KSRTC buses plying in the district. The board were to be made by an aluminium composite panel (ACP) costing Rs 330 each and has a warranty of three years. However, the project came to a halt as the KSRTC could not arrange sufficient funds for purchasing the boards required for the system.
Though the KSRTC approached nationalised banks for arranging funds, it failed to materialise.
“The number system was first introduced in 2008 in the district but failed to get a good response.Though it failed, the numbers have not been removed officially. One can still see route boards in bus stations like East Fort. Though the KSRTC took efforts to reintroduce it, nothing came out positive”, said a top official of Transport Department.
Meanwhile, when contacted, KSRTC executive director (operations) G Anilkumar said a slew of projects to make KSRTC into an international standard is on the anvil under the supervision of present managing director Tomin J Thachankary.
“Since Biju Prabhakar left as the Collector, it is true that the project did not take off. But a positive change will come soon with many advanced projects in the pipeline. Moreover, the numbering system is also under active consideration”, Anilkumar said.