Almost six months have gone by

since the SPTS bus service was

launched in the capital city, but so far none of the equipments, promised earlier, have been installed in the buses till date.

Earlier during the inauguration, the State Government had proposed different equipments to be installed in the SPTS buses like CCTV cameras and the smart card reader.

The proposed smart card reader was to be installed to enable the commuters to buy smart cards and use the cards for a fixed period of time without having to buy tickets on a daily basis while travelling in the buses.

The MUDA and the MTC is however only assuring that all the required equipments would be installed soon in the buses but so far nothing has been forthcoming.

MUDA officials say that the GPS tracking system has been installed in some of the buses while the process to add CCTV cameras and smart card system is on but it is still not clear as to when the SPTS buses will be fully upgraded with all the required equipments.

There is no doubt that the buses have provided the much needed respite to the commuters who were earlier only dependent on the merciless cabbies of the city but regular commuters now say that the Government needs to properly maintain these buses on a priority basis if it wants the buses to remain in service for a long time.

Already wear and tear has begun to appear on the body of these buses. Many SPTS passengers complained that there was no maintenance and the buses were hardly cleaned or washed. (By Aafaque Hussain)