Rourkela: Lack of maintenance has hit ‘Mo Bus’ service in the Steel City hard. Commuters are at the receiving end of the situation as breakdowns and cancellations of these public transport buses have become a regular affair of late, and there seems to be no immediate respite to their woes in sight. “I frequently travel to Bonai by ‘Mo Bus’ for my official engagements, and therefore, bought the monthly pass. Last month, the 8am bus broke down on three occasions and arrived late a few more times,” said Rourkela resident Susant Biswal. Similar complaints are also surfacing from different routes frequently. The Capital Region Urban Transport (CRUT)-managed ‘Mo Bus’ touches different destinations in and around Steel City and is a hit among commuters who completely depend on it for their daily travel. “I prefer ‘Mo Bus’ for daily commute to college as it is both comfortable and quite punctual.
However, nowadays the frequency of cancellations has gone up. What I hear from the bus staff the next day is that the vehicle broke down due to poor maintenance,” said a college-going girl from Nuagaon, which is nearly 12 km away from Rourkela. “First the new government changed the colour of the vehicles and is now probably planning to completely stop this service. We are not very hopeful about the future of ‘Mo Bus’ service,” said some passengers. Investigations with the bus staff revealed that there are serious maintenance issues due to which buses are getting cancelled. “Go the depot, you will find a few buses standing on rims because there is no tire available,” said a driver. Another one said, “Many buses suffer from acceleration issues.” The driver of an air-conditioned ‘Mo Bus’ said, “The AC doesn’t cool the vehicle properly. They took away the compressor for maintenance and the bus remained stranded for more than seven days.”
Meanwhile, attempts to photograph the rickety buses at Kalunga depot were met with resistance. A couple of burly-looking men warned this correspondent to delete the photographs in an intimidating voice and asked to vacate the place immediately. One of them, however, said, “You will find a few buses here at any point of time and the rest are running on the road.” Meanwhile, the supervisor of the depot, Sudhansu Lenka, did not comment on the matter. Dhiren Senapaty, BJP’s state spokesperson, said, “There is nothing to worry. The state government is going to place orders for a large number of electric buses and they are going to strengthen the existing public transport system.” It is pertinent to mention that the CRUT had launched ‘Mo Bus’ service in Rourkela ahead of the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup 2023. Former chief minister Naveen Patnaik flagged off the first ‘Mo Bus’ fleet January 5, 2023 in Steel City.
RAJESH MOHANTY, OP