By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Government-run Meghalaya Transport Corporation (MTC), which has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, is now seeking a makeover in its services.
To start with, the MTC will now add 11 new up-to-date buses to its kitty in a bid to revive the old prestige of the Corporation.
Commissioner of Transport, SN Marak, informed The Shillong Times on Monday that the 11 buses are being procured with the assistance of the State Government.
All the buses will be long-distance buses of which six of them will be night super buses which would travel into far flung areas of the State.
“We are trying to put a new life into our services with the induction of the 11 buses,” she added.
Presently, very few MTC buses ply into the remote parts of the State since the Corporation does not have enough number of buses under its disposal to cater to the various destinations.
According to Marak, the MTC had not procured any new bus since 2006, because of which the services had been affected.
Some of the buses are expected to arrive this month while the rest will be available to the MTC by next month, she added.
Reacting to a query on the credibility of the MTC to operate the buses, she added that the private operators choose only the best routes while the MTC buses have to go into far flung areas where the condition of the road is not that good.
The Commissioner informed that she had recently visited Lucknow to check the proposed buses which would be added into the services.
The buses will try to cover all the far flung areas of the State including Tura and Williamnagar.
“There may be occasional failure on our part but we are trying to give the best services to the people,” she added.
It may be mentioned that the MTC has been castigated for poorly running the much hyped SPTS buses awarded to the State Government under the Centrally-sponsored JNNURM.