Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The transport department is working on a public transport model specially to improve accessibility and connectivity for people living in rural areas. Discussions with stakeholders are being held to provide a safe, efficient, and convenient mode of transportation to people.
A senior officer of the transport department said, “ We are working on a model for a public transport facility and various alternatives are being explored. Four days ago, a virtual conference was held with specialists. There is a plan to run buses in rural and inaccessible areas as well”.
Notably, currently private bus operators are running their buses on all the major roads of the state. These private bus services are running in rural areas having poor state-run transport facilities. In rural areas, villagers have to travel from one place to another by their personal vehicles and those who do not have one have to depend on private players. Mostly people move on bikes. To boost the rural transport facility, a pilot project was launched in Vidisha to provide bus connectivity in rural areas but it did not yield any significant result.
Now once again, the transport department is working on providing better bus connectivity in the rural areas. Long back, when Madhya Pradesh Transport Corporation was operational, government as well as private bus service was available in rural areas, connecting all major routes. And since the closure of the corporation, the bus connectivity to the rural belt has been a major issue.