DESPITE MANY positive aspects of living in Gurgaon, there is one common factor that annoys most residents in the city, poor local bus service. Above 70 per cent of the city population is dependent on public transport and they are put to a great deal of inconvenience in its absence.

This had, in fact, forced the Haryana Transport Ministry to start a local bus service about one-and-a half month ago. Transport Minister Mange Ram Gupta had inaugurated it. But, unfortunately, it has failed to bring the much-needed respite.

The service is quite erratic. As a result, the commuters are suffering and their frustration level is only increasing by the day. The residents openly blame the government for a lack of will in running the local bus service properly.

A resident of Berampur, Shalesh Khatana, said, "The local bus service is not up to the mark and people within the city still suffered due to this.

From this village alone, thousands commute everyday within the city and they have no private transport facility." "There is no bus shelter where people can sit and wait for the bus. As a matter of fact, the gov ernment should have first constructed bus shelters with proper seating facility and also provided the bus numbers so that people did not face any difficulty in locating their destined routes," said a resident of Badshahpur, Jagan Nath Mangla.

Such complaints are heard from all over the city It is worth .

noting that the city has a population of roughly 15 lakh and a majority of them still stay in Old Gurgaon. For them, the local bus service is the lifeline. The population in the city has increased tremendously in the past few decades as the city has seen a lot of business growth.

"We have to commute everyday within the city but the local bus service is very erratic. My children go to different places for jobs and studies and most of the time they have no idea how long they will have to wait for a bus," said a resident of Madanpuri, Shiv Kumar Goyal.

Similarly, a resident of Laxman Vihar, Manohar Lal Sharma, said, "I have never been able to get a local bus ever since it became operational about oneand a--half-month ago. We still depend on rickshaw or auto for local commuting. Though we had a lot of expectation from the city bus service, it has not brought us any respite." According to the residents, the government should have advertised properly before the inauguration of the bus service. All the bus shelters should have been properly constructed with all facilities, just like in Delhi. "It is true that people have no knowledge of the government run city bus service. Most people still depend on the private bus service," said a resident of Kendriya Vihar, Sher Singh Yadav.

Besides HUDA sectors and private builder colonies, which comprise a vast area of the city, Gurgaon district has within its urban limit several villages like Dundehera, Maulahera, Sikandarpur, Chakarpur, Jharsa, Madanpuri, Badshahpur, Dhanwapur, Khandsa and Wazirpur.

At the moment, the government has introduced only 18 buses, which is insufficient for the required passenger load. However, General Manager (GM), Haryana Roadways, Jaibir Singh Arya, said that more buses would be introduced soon. "We have 40 more buses in the pipeline which will cater to entire Gurgaon, including the rural areas. Besides, we have identified 150 sites where HUDA has to construct bus shelters and it has already floated the tenders. These shelters would be maintained by HUDA on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis," added the GM.