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Resentment against hike in bus fare mounting in Bhopal

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NK SINGH Though a Govt. directive has frustrated the earlier efforts of the MPSRTC to increase the city bus fares by as much as 300 per cent, the public resent even the 25 per cent hike. It is "totally unjust, uncalled for and arbitrary", this is the consensus that has emerged from an opinion conducted by "Commoner" among a cross-section of politicians, public men, trade union leaders, and last but not least, the common bus travelling public. However, a section of the people held, that an average passenger would not grudge a slight pinche in his pocket provided the MPSRTC toned up its services. But far from being satisfactory, the MPSRTC-run city bus service in the capital is an endless tale of woe. Hours of long waiting, over-crowding people clinging to window panes frequent breakdowns, age-old fleet of buses, unimaginative routes and the attitude of passengers one can be patient only when he is sure to get into the next bus are some of the ills plaguing the city b...

Gandhi Setu bridge on Ganga in Patna

Gandhi Setu, Patna. Pic courtesy Wikipedia

NK SINGH

MLAs and MLCs from north Bihar have raised their voice against the construction of the proposed Ganga bridge at the Sabalpur site in Patna. They want a bridge at Mahendrughat.

The plan for the Sabalpur bridge was made after detailed investigations an on the recommendation of the Central Water and Power Research Station, Poona, and foreign consultants.

The Ganga river divides Bihar into two parts. North Bihar, almost 20,000 sq miles has a population of 2.18 crore. But due to transport difficulties it remains unconnected and underdeveloped.

To some extent the problem was solved after the construction of the Rajendra bridge at Mokama but an area of 265 miles between Banaras and Mokama remains blank.

The demand for the bridge is old. In March 1913, the Legislative Council of  Bihar and Odisha made a proposal but it was turned down by the East Indian Railway Company.

While UP’s 600-mile-long Ganga areas has got six bridges, the 300-mile-long Ganga area of Bihar has only one.

Excerpts from Frontier 21 June 1969

NK Singh's report on the first road bridge over Ganga near Patna, published in Frontier of 21 June 1969.

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