The Hindu : New Delhi News : NDMC bus shelters project nearing completion

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 24, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

NDMC bus shelters project nearing completion

Manisha Jha

NEW DELHI: The New Delhi Municipal Council organised a two-day inspection of 131 of the 197 Bus-Q-Shelters that are fully functional in Lutyens’ Delhi this past week. Apart from checking the cleanliness and maintenance level at these BSQs , the inspection was organised to avoid repetition of problems encountered in the case of the BOT toilets project undertaken by civic body earlier.

Ms. Sima Gulati, who is in-charge of the inspection committee to review the BSQ project, said: “Through this inspection we wanted to make sure that the contractors have not flouted norms and exceeded the allocated space for advertising or undertaken illegal construction like it happened in the case of BOT toilets earlier.”

Said another NDMC member, “With BOT toilets we noticed that contractors only completed partial work in prime locations just to display advertisements that would fetch them exorbitant revenues. This time we have not allowed contractors to display advertisements in any of the BSQs till they are fully functional.”

According to an NDMC official, vandalism of BSQ parts is also a major challenge for the contractors and the civic body. Said the official, “In several areas such as Gole Market and Janpath we have noticed that people have been vandalising the plastic seat covers, clocks and other aluminium parts of the BSQ and this has became a great cause of concern for us.” Undertaken on a BOT basis with JC Decaux Advertising India, the project involves no construction and maintenance cost on the part of the NDMC for 15 years till the BSQs are transferred to it. “Till then the NDMC will be getting 16 per cent of the advertising revenues earned by JC Decaux on a monthly basis,” said an NDMC official.

This project that started in March 2006 is scheduled to be completed by this October end. “The tender for this project was awarded in 2005 and was scheduled to be completed by September 2006 originally. However it got delayed due to various reasons such as lengthy bid finalisation process, Metro construction work undertaken on some roads as well as the road beautification drive on some roads that interfered with construction of the BSQs,” said the NDMC official.

An attempt has also been made to make the shelters disable-friendly with space allocation for wheel chaired persons .

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