Ahmedabad, 5 July, 2014

Protests are witnessed in some pockets in Ahmedabad on Saturday following newly introduced route rationalization of Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service(AMTS) buses.

The protest is primarily because the route rationalization has been introduced suddenly. The announcement on route rationalization was made on Friday evening and it has been executed on Saturday morning.

The idea of route rationalization according to AMTS Chairman Babubhai Zadafia is to avoid parallel run of AMTS and Bus Rapid Transit System(BRTS) buses on same route.

Zadafia said the parallel run contributes to traffic and pollution He said if AMTS and BRTS function on separate routes, more people and more areas can be covered and revenue gain also could be noticed for both AMTS and BRTS.

He gave an example of Naroda-Narol route of bus number 130. He said the AMTS will continue to function on this route, but covering off road areas. As per the new rationalization introduced today the AMTS buses will cross BRTS route at several places, so that passengers can change the bus and explore more areas through both networks.

Zadafia said the newly introduced ring-radial-feeder concept will gain further after 80 new buses are arrived in about two months period from now.

However, immediate execution of route rationalization has received negative response from people in various areas including the areas of Vatva, Chandkheda, CTM, Akhbarnagar and Maninagar.

Two students protesting the route rationalization were detained. At some places people laid down on road to protest. A group of people stopped BRTS buses in Akhbarnagar area while another group pelted stone over buses in Chandkheda area. Stone pelting has been reported at Hatkeshwar bus-stand while chakkajam is also reported from Maninagar bus-stand of AMTS.