Mo Bus menace

Dr Viyatprajna Acharya
Professor, Biochemistry
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“Bhubaneswar, has been honoured with the esteemed title of ‘City with the Best Public Transport System’ at the 17th Urban Mobility India (UMI) Conference & Exhibition, held at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.”
I don’t know the creator of this video but thanks for making this meme on Mo Bus and showing the frustrations of the commuters.
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As a resident of Bhubaneswar I have another story to say and it is not just my story but many will agree with me in unison. Very often these almost 10-12 meter buses give us a jolt by changing lanes suddenly, as if they are driving autos 🙃 or bring the buses to back of the vehicles leaving a few fingers distance! They have been causing accidents very frequently. Recently to my knowledge, they have caused 2 deaths by running over pedestrians. These all unfortunate incidents make our heads twist to certain questions. Is it really our requirement? Is the project too ambitious and out of proportion??
Well, I am not into town planning but I am a commuter (riding bicycle, Scooty and car) on these roads and I keenly observe the events. My observations and solutions or alternatives to the current nagging problems are as follows:
1. As per the road size the buses are disproportionately bigger, both length and breadth wise. Solution: These bigger buses may be diverted to Puri and Khurdha road, where they’ll use mostly the highways. Alternately, smaller buses are to be initiated for the cities.
2. There are AC and Non-AC buses and due to the price differences, the green ones go overloaded, while blue ones are mostly going vacant or just adequately filled. There’s a lot of wastage of resources. Alternative: All buses should be made AC or non-AC and passengers should be taken only in sitting.
3. There’re no helper/cleaners in these buses for which all these accidents are taking place. Solution: A helper in the bus is highly desirable.
4. Driver selection should be probed. If here also caste based reservation has been given priority, please refrain. They are responsible for lives of many. Here only skill matters. Solution: From time to time driving skill should be evaluated and fair selection should be done for these posts.
5. Drunken driving is another major problem and that has to be as strictly checked as it is done for loco-pilots (train drivers). Random breath tests should be done and strict action should be done if found inebriated.
Hearty congratulations to all of us for winning the award but also these reformations should be taken care of for a smooth onward journey. Instead of changing the colour of the buses, let the new government add a new lot of small sized AC city buses.