Thursday, April 2, 2015

Kozhikode buses to get unique numbering system

KOZHIKODE: People from all walks of life have favoured the introduction of a unique numbering system for city buses in the wake of increasing number of people arriving from other states to the city in search of jobs. According to the officials, more than fifty thousand migrant labourers are working in the corporation limit alone. They have been arriving mainly from the states of West Bengal, Gujarat, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Jharkhand, and Uttaranchal and employed mainly in the construction sector, beauty parlours, hair saloons, hotels, restaurants and shops. The system will also be of help to aged persons who have been finding difficult to read the name boards of places fixed on the buses.
 
K Narayanan, former KSUDP project manager of the City corporation, said that unique numbering system in the city buses will be a great help for the aged people. "The system has been executed successfully in Kannur. It will be a great help for those who arriving for the first time in the city and hundreds of non-Keralites who are depending on the city bus services for travelling," he said.
 
Puthussery Viswanathan, secretary of Kozhikode Residents Apex Council said that the council had submitted a memorandum to RTO two years back to introduce unique numbering facility in city buses. "The memorandum was submitted on the basis of discussion held at one of the meetings of the apex council. The people from other states, who arrives in the city is always seen asking for bus numbers to board the buses as they can not read English and Malayalam nameplates," he said.
 
K Radhakrishnan, state secretary of Bus Operators Organisation, said that the buses operated by the ex-servicemen cooperative society which was stopped more than fifteen years back had unique numbering system for each route. "We will welcome the move in case the authorities implement it in the city buses. The system will be of great help to people from other state who are arriving in the city in search of jobs," he said.
 
Kozhikode Regional Transport Officer K Premanandan said that so far the department has not received any information from the higher ups for the introduction of unique numbering system. "The proposal was there in one of the schemes of the Regional Town Planning office. The proposal will be discussed at the time of its execution," he said.
 Meanwhile, Regional Town Planner KV Abdul Malik said that unique numbering system for buses is one of the components of the on-going study being conducted by the office to carry out the re-routing of the buses. "The unique numbering system was successfully introduced in the buses in Karnataka and Kannur. The study will examine the feasibility for the introduction of unique numbering system in the buses here. The proposal will be submitted to state government soon," he said.
 
Author: Sreedevi Chitharanjan

No comments:

Post a Comment