30 bus shelters with modern facilities to be set up in Hyd

Thirty bus shelters with modern facilities like air conditioning,Wi-Fi,mobile charging points, ATM, water dispensers and CCTV cameras, among others, will be set up here, Telangana Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development K T Rama Rao said here today.

He said this after inaugurating the first Grade 1 Advanced Bus shelter at Shilparamam near Hitec city here.

The Minister also inspected the baby feeding room, kiosks, and SoS button in the modern bus shelter.

The exclusive baby feeding room will facilitate mothers who may have to feed their kids on the go.

"This facility is not restricted only to the passengers who throng the bus shelter for boarding a bus. This is meant for mothers who pass by the area also," officials said.

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, with a view to build modern bus shelters with high quality amenities under Public Private Partnership framework, had issued notification to construct 826 bus shelters here in four packages (grades) on Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis.

These bus shelters have been divided into four grades with Grade 1 Advanced Bus shelters, Grade 2- Proficient Bus Shelters, Grade 3 Basic Bus Shelters and Grade 4- Minimal Bus Shelters, GHMC officials said.

GHMC has handed over 826 bus shelters close to 400 are existing and another 400 are being newly built to four different agencies on a DBFOT basis through tender process.

The Grade 1 bus shelter will have air-conditioned seating area, kiosk, coffee/cool drink vending machines, small food courts, ATMs, separate toilets for ladies and gents and be WiFi-enabled so that people can access internet while waiting for buses.

The grade 1 shelters will have CCTV cameras, digital display of bus timings and routes and also bus movements. It will also have provision for installing a ticketing machine.

Another feature of this bus shelter is an SoS button which will alert a command centre in case of emergencies.

All all new bus shelters will be erected at the new sites and also replace the existing ones with new shelters with modern designs and amenities.

The Grade 2 bus shelters which dot the main routes would have a common toilet depending on the space availability and other amenities, while Grade 3 and 4 would be inside colonies. Grade 4 will have only dustbins.

Transport Minister P Mahender Reddy, Hyderabad Mayor Bonthu Rammohan, GHMC Commissioner B Janardhan Reddy were among those who were present.