NOIDA: The Noida Metro Rail Corporation (NMRC) will soon launch feeder bus services for last-mile connectivity to Aqua Line stations. The corporation has issued an expression of interest (EOI) to engage private operators with a minimum of 25 AC buses with a capacity of 24 seats. This will be done on the public-private-partnership model, where the operators will earn both fare and non-fare revenue. NMRC won’t pay any money to operators for the service.
The buses will run on nine routes covering sectors 50, 51, 62, 63 and 76 in Noida, as well as residential societies and other areas such as Stellar One, Arihant Arden, Stellar Jeevan, ACE City, Gaur City, NSEZ, Knowledge Park, Pari Chowk, UPSIDC Industrial site and sectors Omega 4, Beta 1, Gamma 1, Eta 1, Omicron, Aicher in Greater Noida and Noida Extension.
The EOI document states that the operators shall finance, procure, operate and maintain feeder bus services against the revenues earned through fare and non-fare sources. “The fare box revenues refer to passenger ticketing based on prefixed rates by NMRC, while non-fare box revenues mean income from advertisements on buses, depot and bus queue shelters,” it states.
In 2016, NMRC had rolled out a feeder bus service on 11 routes in Noida, Greater Noida and Noida Extension, but it was suspended following the Covid-19 outbreak in March 2020. The service was terminated in December that year, allegedly because NMRC was suffering losses in running the buses due to lack of ridership.
Ritu Maheshwari, the Noida Authority CEO and NMRC managing director, said operators shall initiate operations with at least 25 buses with minimum coverage of 170km per bus per day as per the schedule proposed by NMRC. “We have just issued an EOI. We will analyse applications and then select operators,” she said.
Last-mile connectivity is one of the key factors in increasing a metro system’s ridership and making it successful. “Customers may not take the metro if the station isn’t at a walking distance unless they have easy means available to reach the station or the end destination. NMRC invites applications for self-sustainable operation of feeder bus services in Noida and Greater Noida,” the document said.
Officials said NMRC will provide bus routes, tentative locations for bus stands/bus queue shelters, help in procuring permits and access to all infrastructure facilities needed.
