The Uttar Pradesh government is striving to expand bus connectivity to reach all villages within the state.
In line with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s directive to connect all villages with public transport, Transport Minister Dayashankar Singh has announced that by December 2023, bus services will be accessible in every village throughout the state.
Officials have been tasked with forming a dedicated team to ensure completion of this goal by year-end.
Currently, Uttar Pradesh consists of 100,983 villages, with a total of 59,163 village panchayats. Among these, only 4,593 village panchayats are currently without government-operated bus services, as reported by the Free Press Journal.
This decision came in following a meeting involving transport department officials as well as representatives from roadways and transport corporations.
The meeting, under the leadership of Principal Secretary of Transport, M Venkateshwarlu, decided to conduct a survey in every district to identify the unserved villages.
To facilitate the survey, the transport department will establish two teams responsible for conducting assessments in each district, with the survey report expected to be completed within a week.
This survey will also evaluate the suitability of motor vehicle routes to these underserved villages.
The minister stated that a comprehensive survey will help determine the passenger demand for each village.
In his directive, Singh added, “While conducting the terrestrial survey and proposing the creation of a route, it should be kept in mind that only villages at a maximum distance of 1 kilometre from the concerned route will be considered serviced. Separate bus services will be operated for villages beyond this distance.”