Prime Tourist Vehicles and Prime Agriculture Response Vehicles also launched

Shillong, Jan 11: Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma, on Wednesday flagged off 30 Shared School Bus System (SSBS) and unveiled Prime Tourist Vehicles and Prime Agriculture Response Vehicles at a function held at U Soso Tham Auditorium, Shillong.

Flagged the buses as part of the Shared School Bus System of STEMS(State Transport & Efficient Mobility Society) in Shillong. This envisages to create a mode shift in school travel from private four-wheelers to school buses & will ease traffic jam issues to a great extent pic.twitter.com/aC9IDOjl6M

— Conrad Sangma (@SangmaConrad) January 11, 2023

For the safety of the school students, digital infrastructure such as real-time bus tracking, cameras, and assistance from school authorities while crossing the roads for accessing the school buses is provided

— Conrad Sangma (@SangmaConrad) January 11, 2023

In his address, the Chief Minister said the Sustainable Transport and Efficient Mobility Society (STEMS) program is entirely focussed on mobility and overall transportation and decongestion of Shillong issues which are crucial and concerned everyone. “Multiple ideas have been discussed in the past and we have struggled to find a solution because the problem is complicated and at the same time it keeps increasing and hence a lot of thought process has gone into the STEMS program,” he informed.

“A lot of planning and effort has gone into it and has been designed to the needs of Shillong city and the needs of the different stakeholders and I am sure the program will run successfully,” he said. The Chief Minister also informed that the program will be expanded to other parts of the State.

Prime Agriculture Response Vehicles
Informing about the Prime Agriculture Response Vehicles, Sangma said the farmers face a lot of problems for mobility and to transport their products to the markets.

“We have decided that on an annual basis we will continue this program and we will try to cover more farmers associations and groups so that the farmers will have a strong transportation network which will ultimately help the farmers,” he said.

Prime Tourist Vehicles
On the Prime Tourist Vehicles, he said the Prime Tourist Vehicles are a step to improve the overall tourism sector, to provide good transportation services to tourists and at the same time to provide job opportunities to local entrepreneurs.

The Chief Minister also highlighted some projects and steps of the government that are in the pipeline to decongest and improve the traffic congestion in Shillong city.

Earlier, in her address CEO, STEMS, Isawanda Laloo, said the fleet of buses that is being introduced shall be used by multiple schools for school trips and the same buses maybe used by employees to commute to offices and on holidays or weekends by tourists, thus, creating more efficiency and ensuring that the operations of the buses are sustainable.

About STEMS
Giving an insight on the genesis of STEMS, she said, “For executing the proposed solutions, an agile institutional structure was needed, the society was thus created by the government with an inclusive governance structure for easy collaboration for smooth implementation and execution.”

She further informed that all other supporting systems like all weather waiting kiosks, zebra crossings are part of the system. She also informed that the fleet of buses will be expanded in future to cover more areas in Shillong.

STEMS comprises representatives from Traffic, Police, Education, Transport, District Administration and Urban Affairs. The buses are equipped with all requisite facilities with five CCTV cameras per bus for Front View, Rear View, Driver View, Boarding View and Seating View. The buses are GPS enabled for real time tracking with a passenger information system and LED screens to show the routes.

The NIC will develop Mobile application and website for tracking and booking of the buses while the transport department will be roped in for operations and maintenance of the buses. The drivers and the caretakers of the buses will be trained by the Meghalaya Skills Development Society. STEMS will also have a dedicated and experienced personnel who will directly report to the CEO.