Experimenting with failure : Farce of semi-low floor buses
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: November 06, 2012 -

Semi-low floor bus for ferrying passengers within the market areas in Imphal on February 23 2012
Pix - David M Mayum

Another case of putting the cart before the horse.

From traffic lights which posed more hazards to vehicular movements than making it smoother, to CCTV cameras placed at vantage points of Imphal as part of security measures taken up falling apart like nine pins to computer sets given to schools without addressing the issue of power supply, and now the Congress Government seems hell bent on outdoing itself, all over again.

Procure 11 more semi-low floor buses under the Jawaharlal Urban Renewable Mission (JNURM) when it has utterly failed to maintain the present fleet of 14 such buses and how does one describe such a decision ?

Delusional ? Quixotic ?

Or a decision steered and guided by the infamous politician-contractor-supplier nexus ?

A process which involves floating tenders, inviting bids and then awarding the supply works. All involves money, big money.

As things stood on November 5, only four of the 14 available buses were put in service on trial basis after an interregnum that dates back to October 27. A recall of the past is perhaps in line here.

Under the JNURM, the then Congress led SPF Government procured 14 semi-low floor buses many moons back and 12 of these vehicles were put into service on June 16 this year, with two kept on stand by to meet any technical exigencies.

The responsibility of running these buses were first given to the State police but it was later transferred to the State Transport Department after July 16 this year.

The routes worked out for the 12 buses were Malom to Khurai Chairenthong, MU Gate at Canchipur to Koirengei and the Imphal West DC office at Lamphel to the DC office at Porompat in Imphal East.

Self sufficiency or sustainability is the mantra behind any scheme or project taken up.

That this has consistently failed to register in the heads of the people who matter need not be elaborated here and this should explain why the semi-low floor buses were suddenly taken off the roads on October 27 this year.

Instead of addressing the core issue of why the buses are not able to generate the income needed to keep them operational, the Government has gone ahead and decided to procure another 11 such buses.

Bereft of logic and reasoning, this mentality sucks.

Not the way in which an enterprise should be run. If the buses are running on losses, then why not explore the idea of changing the routes or extending the routes?

Government officials are obviously not trained to think out of the box, but then when they can't even think within the box, then surely there must be an agenda somewhere looming.

What this agenda is all about should be apparent to all. Failing to maintain the present fleet of 14 buses and then going ahead with the decision to procure 11 more sounds extremely adventurous.

But adventurism is not what governance demands, at least not in this case. Experiments ending in failure is part of the game but experimenting with failure is unacceptable.

Frightening to even think that this is the Government in whose hands the fate of 25 odd lakh people lies, when it can't even maintain a fleet of 14 buses.