Bus shelters across Dwarka are either missing or encroached, leaving little space for commuters. At many places vehicles parked in front of bus shelters force drivers to stop on the middle of the road or drive through without stopping.
Vehicles parked in front of bus shelters in Dwarka make it difficult for commuters to use
If you are a DTC bus commuter in Dwarka, it is your luck if you can spot a bus stand. And even if you do locate one, there could be no place for you there.
Either the tiny boards announcing bus stops are hoisted atop poles, not easily visible either to commuters or to bus drivers, or there are encroachments that have taken over the bus stop shelters. Then there are vehicles parked in front of the bus stops, so it becomes a problem to negotiate them and reach the buses that stop for a fraction of a second in the middle of the road.
At many places, for example on the Uttam Nagar to Gurgaon route through sectors 22 and 23, bus stops are missing on the stretch in Sector 9 and in Sector 23. Similarly, on the route of bus no RL 75, bus stops are missing in Sector 13 and 14. At many places the bus stops are marked with small boards hung on poles. Most of the drivers find it difficult to see these boards and stop at the designated bus stops.
With the result, the commuters find it difficult to decide where to stand to catch the buses. Several complaints by RWAs failed to evoke adequate response from the transport department.
Residents say the DTC should have put in place proper infrastructure for the benefit of commuters, but sadly that is the not the case. The RWAs and transport authority carried out a joint survey in 2013 that gave several recommendations, but so far, they remain ignored.
Vice-president of Sukh Dukh Ke Sathi (SDKS), SS Mann, a resident of Sector 22 and a member of the joint survey committee, told City Spidey that “in Sector 22 and 23 there are no bus shelters. A survey was conducted by DTC for the bus shelters in Sector 22 and 23, but even after four years, there is nothing on the ground. Commuters still have to stand wherever they can under rain or the searing summer sun."
Similarly, all over Dwarka it is the same story, whether you take Sector 22 or 13, 14, 16 or 17, he said.
On the other hand, on some new routes introduced for Dwarka like RL75, RL77, bus shelters were constructed by the authority along the Master Plan Road 202.
But any time of the day, many vehicles are parked in front of these bus shelters, making it difficult for commuters to use them. For example, take the bus shelter near the markets around Ashirvad Chowk and Sector 6 and Sector 10, vehicles parked in front make it difficult for the buses to halt. So, the drivers are either forced to stop in the middle of the road, or drive through without stopping. And in either case, the commuters have a harrowing time, said Shailini Gautam.
DTC officials could not be contacted for comment.
Local MLA of Matiala, Gulab Singh Yadav, maintained that he was in touch with transport authorities. “Tenders have to be floated for constructing new bus shelters. I will allocate funds from the MLA fund for the bus shelters,” he promised, in a conversation with City Spidey.
