Shillong, Feb 21: There has been an increase in the demand for the bus services offered to students by the government’s sustainable transport and efficient mobility society (STEMS), with an objective to address the traffic congestion in Shillong city.

Informing this on Thursday, Director of School Education & Literacy Swapnil Tembe said the STEMS team have informed that approximately 30 more buses are coming in view of the increasing demand for their services.

“In fact, we also got demands coming from Jowai and Tura for similar initiatives (to extend the bus services for students there),” he told reporters.

Last year, the state government had rolled out 30 buses but initially the response was not good despite various initiatives taken by the STEMS team.

“In view of this, we (DSEL) also collaborated as we also felt that we should play a party and together we made a video (to create awareness),” Tembe said while adding that the kinds of features provided in the STEMS buses are nowhere to be seen in the country.

“Once, the children get off the bus there are caretakers, who will be there from the point of disembarking, they will be taken to schools – that kind of feature, I have not seen in any other states or any other city.”

He added, “There is an App also where parents will get notification when their children are boarding and when they are coming back – all kinds of safety features have been taken. So now they are all full and all 30 buses are occupied.”

The DSEL director also informed that this year, there will be 60 STEMS buses, which will be extending their services to the students. “This would mean 1800 less vehicles on the road. That is the kind of impact I would say. Still there are many steps to be taken but this is a step in the right direction,” he said.

“However, the challenges remain as you are aware some of the routes are very narrow and so these buses will not be able to go till the end. For example, Shillong Public School, after DHS point, the road is so narrow so maybe we can think of smaller buses, which can go till the school. Parking of these buses is a challenge, which they have worked out,” he added.

Further, the director appealed to parents to consider taking the services of these buses as they are totally safe for students besides helping resolve the traffic congestion in the city.

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