NHT

Panaji, Feb 13: Failure of the state government to have a parking policy has come as a roadblock to the state as the Centre has not released funds for the much-awaited low-floor 42-seater buses under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). The buses were to be added to the Kadamba Transport Corporation (KTC) fleet.

Sources in the KTC, on condition of anonymity, informed that the buses are ready but the KTC is unable to take delivery of the buses as it is yet to receive around Rs 3 crore from the Union ministry for Urban Development.

Sources said that the Union ministry for Urban Development has not sanctioned the money as the state government has to undertake reforms. The government has to have a parking policy of its own. Besides, it also has to create a special corpus fund and also have an urban mass transit facility until which the Centre will not release the funds, the source further informed. The source said that the total cost of the 20 buses is around Rs 3.8 crore of which the Centre will provide 80 per cent while the state has to provide for the remaining 20 per cent.

The KTC source said that Goa is too small a state to have an urban mass transit facility and hence the state government has already written to the Union ministry of Urban Development to exempt the state from the transit facility, and to release the funds. The source also stated that KTC officials recently held a meeting with the department of urban development to take stock of the situation. The source added that the department is looking into the matter and a final decision will be taken by the end of this month.

When the state Urban Development Minister, Mr Joaquim Alemao was contacted in this regard, he said he was unaware of any such development. The director of municipal administration, Mr D Hawaldar could not be contacted for his comments.

It may be recalled that the KTC was to receive 20 low-floored 42-seater buses with LED destination boards, automatic ticketing machines, GPS-ready facility and other modern facilities by the second week of February.

The buses were allocated to the state as part of the central government’s modernisation policy of providing 40,000 such buses to all the states and Union territories. The KTC had sought 180 buses from the Centre of which in phase one Goa was allotted 20 buses.

When contacted, the leader of the opposition who is heading the sub-committee on JNNURM said that the sub-committee has nothing to do with the current issue as the work of the sub-committee is to only study projects, approve or disapprove of them and make recommendations etc while it is the main committee which has to look into the matter. Interestingly, the Chief Minister Mr Digambar Kamat, who is heading the committee, could not be contacted for his comments.