Bhubaneswar: Capital Region Urban Transport’s (CRUT) Mo Bus services completed its first anniversary Wednesday.
To mark the occasion Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik took a ride in a Mo Bus from the Biju Patnaik International Airport square to Jaydev Bhawan. The passengers travelling in the bus were in for a pleasant surprise when they saw the Chief Minister who interacted with them. Some of them also took selfies with Naveen Patnaik.
The 200 bus strong fleet operating in the state capital, Cuttack and Khurda is looking to expand and stretch its services to more routes, as well as plying in Puri next year said officials.
The event at Jaydev Bhawan was also attended by Minister of Urban Development Pratap Jena, BJD leader Prasanna Patasani, officers and staff of the organisation. CRUT took the occasion to highlight its achievement of inculcating a culture of public transport in the city.
The Mo Bus service has registered an impressive growth in the number of passengers. The average for the month of October has been 85,000 passengers daily.
In a push towards clean mobility, 50 electric buses, or E-Buses have been sectioned for CRUT under the ‘FAME India’ scheme phase II which will be introduced soon.
Naveen Patnaik unveiled the name of the new Mo Bus mascot- MOBBY which is an abbreviation for Mo Bus for better you’. He also congratulated the Mo Bus team on the success of the initiative.
“Of course we are in a better position in comparison to other states, but we have to plan ahead. We have to strengthen the public transport system. Timely service and safe transportation have to be ensured. I believe we can provide better services than some of the other metro cities,” said Patnaik.
Managing director of CRUT Arun Bothra said that the daily revenue of Mo Bus has grown from Rs 5,00,000 in May to Rs 12 lakh at present. “No public transport system is profitable in any part of India. But we are optimistic of further increasing the revenue to almost 16-17 lakh rupees by 2020. So we are hopeful to break even by then,” said Bothra.
PNN