As the locals continue to suffer from lack of transportation facilities in the ‘Queen of Hills’ during peak hours, the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) is finding it hard to rationalise its fleet and provide much needed relief to commuters.
Vijay Sharma, a local, said that Shimla faces the problem of proper management of buses and most buses do not report on time.
This results in commuters suffering from overloading in the buses and in addition, the bus services to interior and peripheral areas of Shimla in the evening are not adequate. The locals feel that the bus service to these areas should continue till late hours, especially after 8 pm.
The tourists, who want to use public transport on their visit to Shimla, are also dissatisfied. Sachin Aggarwal, a tourist from Delhi, said that there are no proper signage regarding the timing of bus service within and outside Shimla which leads to confusion.
“Buses are sufficient but are not managed the way they should be,” Bhupender Kumar Attri, Regional Transport Officer, Shimla admitted.
“Only transport department cannot be blamed for this; the tourism authorities also need to work hard,” he added.
Attri said buses get overloaded during peak hours in the capital city and there is dire need of availability of more buses at areas, located on the outskirts of Shimla. He stressed on the need for plying more buses for employees during office hours to reduce traffic and dissuade them from using personal vehicles.
He said that there should be different plan for managing city specific vehicles and tourist rush during summer season and weekends.
He said that many plans are suggested by the Transport department to the Himachal Pradesh government, which includes introduction of mono-rails as they can prove to be a cheaper mode of transportation.
Further, the tourist vehicles should be parked at bypass and parking and transportation facility should be provided to them for their onward journey so that tourists do not result in clogging of roads with their personal vehicles.
Besides, mobile-based apps should be developed for parking to keep the drivers updated on availability of parking spaces. Flyovers can be another solution to de-congest city roads, he added.
He called for placing timetable of buses for journey within the ‘Queen of Hills’ and nearby tourist hot-spots should be displayed prominently in and around city to facilitate commuters and tourists alike.
Shimla has 104 private buses and approximately 147 HRTC buses that provide transportation facility to commuters.
Recently, the state government introduced 32 electric buses but introducing more buses can be a problem as Shimla is already a congested city.
Attri said the state government is working on the plans and is looking into the issue as to what can be done to improve the public transport in city.