SHILLONG, May 3: Decongestion of the roads in Shillong is one of talking points at present and nearly four months after the government introduced the much-vaunted STEMS school buses with the objective to decongest the city, it has finally begun the registration process marking a step towards making the intervention ‘STEMS Buses’ operational.
The registration for seats has been opened through the mobile application ‘STEMS Meghalaya’, which is available on Google Play Store. The manual for step-by-step registration has been uploaded on https://stems-meghalaya.nic.in/ for reference. It will also be circulated to parents through the school authorities.
The app will also shortly be available on the iOS App Store.
It may be mentioned that in the pilot phase, only 900 seats are available for the STEMS bus service. The bus services will initially be launched for students of select schools in and around the Laitumkhrah- Dhankheti area.
The bus routes and the selection of students for the pilot phase will be done after the registration process is completed and will be based on the demand obtained, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sustainable Transport & Efficient Mobility Society (STEMS), Isawanda Laloo, said in a statement.
STEMS was created by the Meghalaya government with a mandate to carry out coordinated interventions with different departments and stakeholders to address issues pertaining to urban congestion, and is tasked with the making the bus service operational.
STEMS has procured 30 GPS-enabled buses having modern features such as CCTV cameras, live location tracking, a mobile application for seat booking and payment, a bus management platform, assured seats and customer care support, the STEMS CEO said.
The buses will be run by a dedicated operations team under STEMS consisting of trained supervisors and drivers, while, for ensuring the safety of the enrolled students, trained and child-friendly caretakers have been assigned for each bus, she said.
“Several rounds of consultations with parents, schools and local headmen have been held and various government departments are actively involved in the implementation of the project. With the introduction of this service, it is aimed to gradually reduce the heavy reliance on private vehicles as a mode of transportation which is found to be inefficient and is one of the major causes of congestion in the capital city especially during peak hours,” she said.
For queries, parents can contact 3500097/3500098 during office hours or email to [email protected].
