The Capital Region Urban Transport (CRUT), previously known as the Bhubaneswar-Puri Transport Services (BPTS) which manages Mo Bus service in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Khordha and Puri has completed its auction process to dispose of 121 City Buses biting the dust at several depots since three years.
General Manager of CRUT, Dipti Mohapatra said on Friday that the buses were decided to be sold off after their agreement period with the DTS (Dream Team Sahara) was over in 2017.
“The CRUT bought 125 buses in 2010 under the JNNURM programme to facilitate city bus service in Bhubaneswar and Puri. An agreement was signed with the DTS to operate them for seven years, till 2017. Later, the agreement was extended for another year, till 2018,” said Mohapatra.
Sources said after the extended agreement date was over in 2018, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) was given four buses for their ‘Toilet On Wheels’ programme and the rest of the buses (121) were decided to be sold off through auction.
“As both the life and licence to ply these buses was over, an inspection was carried out by the RTO which recommended scrapping those. We followed the necessary procedure and auctioned them through the Central Government scrap auction portal MSTC (Metal Scrap Trade Corporation Limited),” added Mohapatra.
“In fact we have auctioned them at a higher rate slab which was decided by the RTO after inspection,” she added.
In 2010, the Bhubaneswar-Puri Transport Services (BPTS) was created with a mandate to manage and operate the bus services on intra city as well as inter-city routes in Bhubaneswar and between Bhubaneswar, Puri, Cuttack and Khordha.
Over the years BPTS evolved into Capital Region Urban Transport, more commonly known as CRUT, on May 4, 2018, with the vision to reorganize public transit services in the city. It is the primary agency providing public transit services within the Capital city of Bhubaneswar and in its neighboring cities of Cuttack and Puri.
Meanwhile, the CRUT has added three new routes to its fleet of busses.
Route Number 9: Acharya Vihar - Patia (Via Niladri Vihar)
Route Number 35: Bhubaneswar Railway Station - Jayadev Pitha
Route Number 71: Baramunda ISBT- Konark (Via Rasulgarh)