Ghaziabad: Bus stops across Ghaziabad and Noida are increasingly turning into “ghost shelters” as buses no longer halt at many of these designated locations. In several parts of Ghaziabad, abandoned bus stops have been encroached upon and converted into tyre repair shops, tea stalls and eateries.In Indirapuram’s Gyan Khand, one such abandoned shelter now houses a paratha stall with three plastic tables laid out for customers. Benches meant for passengers waiting to catch a bus double up as seats for customers.Sahil, who runs the stall, said the bus stop remained vacant for years before he moved in. “It was just lying empty. People pass by throughout the day, so I thought it would be a good place to start my stall,” Sahil said.A few kilometres away in Kanawani, Danish has been running a tyre repair shop for the last eight years. “I have never seen a single bus pull up at this spot. When I opened my shop, the shelter was already lying unused. Nobody from any department has ever asked me to vacate it because there is no bus service here,” Danish said.Of the city’s fleet of 50 city buses, only 33 currently operate, across six routes, far below the city’s requirement. The city has 63 bus stops, most of which commuters say have become redundant.“We don’t stand at the bus stop anymore because the buses don’t stop there. Everyone knows the point where the driver usually slows down. That’s where we wait,” said Lakshmi Verma, a resident of Raj Nagar Extension, who was seen waiting along the roadside in Indirapuram to catch a bus to Muradnagar.Another commuter, Ravi Choudhary, said most people travelling short distances prefer private buses or shared vehicles because they run more frequently. “If we stand at the shelter, we’ll miss the bus. We stand where we think it will stop. And generally, once we wave in the direction of the bus, the driver stops, so we are forced to wait along roadsides,” he said, adding most bus stops were dirty and lacked maintenance.On the 22-km Old Bus Adda-Loni route via Shaheed Sthal New Bus Adda, Hindon River, Arthala and Mohan Nagar on the Red Line, besides Hindon Civil Terminal and Ghaziabad’s rapid rail station, 13 buses run at 15-minute intervals. The 31-km Old Bus Adda-Mandola route has just two buses operating hourly. The 25-km Dilshad Garden-Masuri route has seven buses running every 25 minutes via Dilshad Garden, Shaheed Nagar, Rajbagh, Rajendra Nagar, Mohannagar, Shyam Park, Arthala, Hindon River Shaheed Sthal New Bus Adda and Ghaziabad rapid rail station. The 40-km Kaushambi-Govindpuri route, the network’s longest, has nine buses at 35-minute intervals. The 31-km Kaushambi-Dadri route has 14 buses running every 20 minutes.In Noida, which got its first batch of 100 e-buses only in June, bus shelters across sectors including 18, 19 and 20 are damaged and largely deserted. Most of their benches are rusted, roofs damaged, and walls covered with posters and scribbled phone numbers, while garbage has piled up around them. “The buses rarely pull into the bus stop. You have to stand on the roadside and signal the driver. That’s how everyone catches a bus here,” said Deepak Yadav, a security guard travelling to Greater Noida, standing nearly 300 metres away from the Sector 20 bus stop. Several of the unused bus stops in the city have turned into parking lots.District magistrate Medha Roopam said she would ask the Noida Authority to look into the matter and get it fixed. “Public transportation is our priority area, and we will reach out to the Noida Authority and get it fixed and look into the matter,” she said.Her counterpart in Ghaziabad, Ravindra Kumar Mandar, said the administration is planning a meeting on Aug 17 with both the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation and the Ghaziabad Development Authority. “We will have a discussion on the condition of the existing bus stops and the upcoming ones as we are getting more city buses into the district,” he said.
