In order to bring about a revolution in the country's transport system, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways plans to set up a bus port on the pattern of airport in Sonipat district of Haryana.

Facts :

• In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the Union ministry of road transport and highways has decided to set up a bus port on the pattern of an airport in Sonipat district.
• Equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and services, the bus port would be constructed jointly by the Haryana Government and the National Highway Authority of India under private-public partnership in Chauhan Joshi village of Sonipat district.
• A meeting was held in this regard under the chairmanship of NHAI Chairman Yudhvir Singh Malik.
• The proposed bus stand will be an ultra-modern ‘bus port’, with infrastructure at par with an international airport.
• To be constructed under design, built, finance, operate and transfer model, new bus ports will have digital display, variable message sign boards, CCTV camera, surveillance system,delux waiting room, tourist information center, clock room, restaurant, food court, plaza,budget hotel, multiplex, administrative office, parcel room, maintenance workshop, fuel station etc facilities.
• Visitors will be allowed only till the entry and exit gates of this bus terminal whose entry has been divided into three parts - one each for buses, pedestrians and for private vehicles.
• To provide amenities to passengers, wheel chair and separate toilet for handicapped persons would be provided at the terminal which is equipped with sign boards providing east information to passengers, help desk for passengers, there will be round the clock housekeeping and security services with CCTV cameras and RO filtered drinking water facility.
• Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari had planned this innovative scheme to provide better transport facility to the general public.
• The officers have identified Chauhan Joshi as appropriate place as it falls on NH-1 and would relieve traffic congestion at the inter-state bus stand at Kashmiri Gate, New Delhi.
• In view of important projects like Metro on GT road and Railway Orbital Corridor till Panipat, Chauhan Joshi has been chosen to develop bus port.

Analysis :

• While highlighting the need for Nagpur Metro, CM Khattar asserted that public transportation was the only solution for traffic woes.
• It has been proven all over the world that construction of extra roads does not solve traffic jams. In Japan, they have a seven-level flyover yet gridlocks are common.
• There is a need to improve our public transportation and integrate it for seamless transportation. Once all forms of public transportation, metro and bus, complement each other, people will start using it in huge numbers.
• The purpose was to provide airport-like facilities to the thousands of the passengers who travel by state transport buses on a daily basis.
• Union Government has promised that six to eight "world-class" bus stations will be constructed across the states in the near future.
• It is to be noted that country's first international standard bus terminal is the central bus depot of Vadodara(Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Central Bus Station) - designed on the theme of banyan tree gave a new identity to the city.