Surat City Bus is the name under which city buses are operated in

Surat Surat is a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The word Surat literally means ''face'' in Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of the river Tapti near its confluence with the Arabian Sea, it used to be a large seaport. It is now ...

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

, India. It is operated by a private entity-‘Sitilink’ under a

public private partnership In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

model for the

Surat Municipal Corporation Surat Municipal Corporation is the local civic body responsible for the administration of Surat, Gujarat which has come into being under the Bombay Provincial Municipal Act, 1949. The Surat Municipal Corporation was established on 2 October 1966 ...

(SMC). The model is based on an earlier model by the

Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service Amdavad Municipal Transport Service (AMTS) runs the public bus service in the city of Ahmedabad in India.The responsibility of the administration of AMTS comes under the Amdavad Municipal Corporation History Private operators There existed t ...

(AMTS) which operated bus services in

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per t ...

on a public-private partnership, but subsequently failed. In 2012, the

Government of Gujarat The Government of Gujarat, also known as Gujarat Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Gujarat and its 33 districts. It consists of an executive of the legislators appointed by the Governor of Gujarat, a judiciary ...

announced that it would set up similar transport facilities in 180 cities across the state under a public-private partnership.

History

In 1997, the Surat Municipal Corporation had submitted a feasibility report to the

, for privatisation of bus services in Surat city, as existing services being operated by the state-run

Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation, abbreviated GSRTC, is a Government State Transport Undertaking of Gujarat for passengers facilitating with road public transport in moffusil / city services. GSRTC operates within the state of Gujarat, I ...

(GSRTC) were found to be loss-making and insufficient for the city. In 1999, the GSRTC inaugurated a new

bus stand A bus stand, also called a bus bay, or bus stance, is a designated parking location where a bus or coach waits out of service between scheduled public transport services. 'Bus stand' is also often an alternative name for specific bus stops inside ...

and office at

Udhna Udhna (Also Called Udhana) is a Suburban area of Surat, located primarily on Surat-Navsari Highway in the Indian state of Gujarat. Udhna is an Industrial Area in city of Surat, India. It is about 9 km from Surat central Railway Station and 14 ...

for city and rural bus services in and around the city.

Operations

In August 2007, the SMC entered into an agreement with a private entity to provide bus services for a period of five years. These buses were referred to as ''Redline'' buses and were fueled by

compressed natural gas Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in cy ...

(CNG). In 2013, the SMC was unable to find a new operator, forcing it to extend the existing agreement by a few months. Subsequently, Redline services were suspended because the operator could not break even with the service. This reportedly affected 80,000 commuters per day across the city. In July 2013, the SMC launched a new line of services labelled ''Blueline'' buses, operated by a different operator. A total of 120

bus stop A bus stop is a place where buses stop for passengers to get on and off the bus. The construction of bus stops tends to reflect the level of usage, where stops at busy locations may have shelters, seating, and possibly electronic passenger ...

s were constructed by the SMC prior to the Blueline buses being flagged off. The Blueline service is expected to run 125 buses for six years. The passenger number has risen from 3,000 to 65,000 and the SMC's revenue, too, shot up from ₹46,000 to ₹600,000 daily. The ministry said that in Surat city the model shift of passengers from autorickshaw to city bus is about 86.91 per cent. At least 6.18 per cent of two-wheel passengers, 0.67 per cent of car users and nearly 5 per cent of other passengers have started using city buses.

Fleet

It consists of 576 buses and runs on 28 different routes, covering 85 per cent of urban area. More than 2 lakh passengers use public transport on a daily. *

List of tourist attractions in Surat Surat is a principal business hub of the Indian state Gujarat, the eighth largest city and ninth largest urban agglomeration. Surat is the 2nd cleanest city of India. and fastest growing city of the world Surat is also famous for its food, ...

Surat BRTS The Sitilink or Surat BRTS is an integrated bus rapid transit and public bus transport system for Surat, Gujarat, India. It has been operational since 26 January, 2014 by Surat Municipal Corporation. Corridors Phase 1 The Two corridors hav ...

References

External links

Surat City Bus
{{State owned road transport companies in India Municipal transport agencies of India Transport in Surat Companies based in Surat 2007 establishments in Gujarat Government agencies established in 2007 Indian companies established in 2007 Transport companies established in 2007