The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has proposed to rope in a private company to construct shelters for 11 bus bays that have been handed over to them recently.
The Roads and Building division was given the responsibility for constructing the bus bays in the city. As per the master plan, 55 bus bays were proposed around a year back.
A team comprising officials from BMC, Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), traffic police and other departments was constituted to identify the locations for construction the bus bays. Of 55 proposed bays, land for only 21 could be identified.BMC has floated an Expression of Interest (EOI) for private companies to construct the bus shelters. The companies, which will bear the cost of construction, will be allowed to display advertisement as a source of revenue for them.
BMC Project Officer Srimanta Mishra said the companies have been given 11 bus bays by the Public Works Department (PWD) and work will be started by next month.
On the other hand, PWD engineer Bijen Behera said the construction of all 21 bus bays has been completed around one year back and those have been handed over to BMC.
“If there are any formalities left for handing over the bus bays, then that can be sorted out immediately if BMC officials approach us,” added Behera.