GREATER NOIDA: With the city lacking a proper public transport system, the Greater Noida Authority plans to soon roll out a modern bus service.
The proposed bus network aims at connecting the various sectors and 124 villages of Greater Noida with major places like the GNIDA’s office, the collectorate, metro stations, main markets and hospitals, and with NCR cities like Noida and Ghaziabad.
For this, the Authority will provide space for a temporary bus station in Greater Noida (west) which has about 2.5 lakh apartments with over a lakh residents already living in the area. The bus station will be able to accommodate four to five intra-city buses, with the provision of parking spaces for a couple of intercity buses from Hapur, Bulandshahr, Noida and Ghaziabad, officials said.
A meeting in this regard was held on Wednesday between senior officials of GNIDA and UP Roadways. They will soon come up with a route plan and the number of buses. Currently, only intercity buses ply through the city’s main roads via Pari Chowk and Surajpur Kasna Road.
Narendra Bhooshan, CEO of GNIDA, said, “In the coming days, the population of the city will increase rapidly. Residents of this area have been demanding bus connectivity with NCR and within the city since long as there is no such facility available in the area right now. Therefore, we held talks with the officials of UP Roadways who have agreed to come up with a route plan and number of buses for this area soon.”
During the meeting, UP Roadways managing director Navdeep Rinwa agreed to arrange the buses and send a proposal in this regard to the Authority soon. “Since it is difficult to meet the full cost of operating these buses, we are ready to bear the remaining amount keeping in view the need of the residents of Greater Noida,” said Bhooshan.
“Residents of Greater Noida (west), Greater Noida (east) and the 124 villages stand to benefit as they will not have to depend on autos or cabs to reach their destination and incur huge expenses. They will be able to visit NCR cities also easily once the service begins,” he added.
