By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The State Transport department has debunked the claims of the Meghalaya Urban Development Authority (MUDA) that 14 of the SPTS buses procured under the Central Government sponsored JNNURM were grounded at the MTC workshop.
Brushing asides the claims on Wednesday, a Transport official stated that the so-claimed non-functioning SPTS buses have hit the roads again after repair. He, however, admitted that there were two or three buses which needed to be repaired.
The Transport official also clarified that the 14 buses claimed to be non-functional by MUDA are the ones which do not have a functional Global Positioning System (GPS).
“If the GPS is not working then these buses would appear to be non-functional to the MUDA. But in reality they are fully functional,” he added. When asked whether the Meghalaya Transport Corporation (MTC) has repaired the GPS on those buses, the official stated that MUDA is responsible for repairing the GPS devices.
“We have submitted a report on the same to the Urban Affairs Department two weeks back,” the official claimed.
Notably, Urban Affairs Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh had recently informed that MUDA would act as the nodal agency for operating the SPTS buses since MTC was found lacking in this regard.
The Urban Affairs Department had also blamed MTC for ill-management of the SPTS buses claiming that 14 out of the 50 buses were grounded at the MTC workshop due to mechanical problems.