Pb govt will try to run "half-baked", "ill-conceived" Amritsar BRTS project, minister

The Congress government in Punjab will try to run the "half-baked" and "ill-conceived" Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) in Amritsar, as hefty sums of money have already gone into the project, state Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal said today.

Badal, while replying to a calling attention notice, informed the state Assembly here today that a group of ministers will now suggest ways to take the project get back on track. The project had failed to take off and nearly 150 buses are lying unused.

"It was a half-baked and ill-conceived project conceptualised by the previous government. Barring a few odd cities, BRTS projects have failed in most cities in the country. However, now as a lot of money has been spent on it, a group of ministers will go into the issue and we will try to run the project. At this stage, we are not going into the argument whether the project was good or bad," Badal said.

Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu said over Rs 400 crore had been spent on the project.

"If we get Rs 30 crore running cost for this project, we will run it and make it world class," Sidhu said.

Badal and Sidhu were replying to a calling attention notice of Congress MLA Sunil Dutti, a former mayor of Amritsar.

"In its present shape, the BRTS project leads to traffic jams, many accidents too have occurred, bus stands have been built in the middle of roads, which is causing inconvenience. The government should take a call whether the project has to be run or scrapped," Dutti said.

Amritsar BRTS is jointly funded by the Centre and Punjab on equal sharing basis and the total cost of the project is Rs nearly 495 crore. In December, 2016, partial operations of the BRTS were started and presently only nine buses are plying, the state Assembly was informed.