Pumpwell bus stand project, no clarity, progress

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Oct 12, 2017: The Mangaluru City Corporation council gave approval for the proposal in June 2014. The project was conceived in 2012 and seven acres of land has been reserved for it.  The over-five-year-old proposal to build a bus stand for private buses at Pumpwell is still in ’foot dragging mode’ unlikely to take off in the near future as there is still no clarity on the model to be adopted.

At a meeting chaired by DK DC Dr K.G. Jagadeesha,  two private firms made a presentation on the model that could be adopted. While a Chennai-based firm placed a model using the earmarked land, a firm from Mangaluru proposed a joint development model entailing acquisition of additional land wherein a mall and commercial complex could be built.

DC  Jagadeesha said a five-member technical committee comprising senior engineers and experts from Infrastructure Development Corporation (Karnataka) Ltd. and Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation would study the two models. Based on their report, a proposal will be sent to State government for approval.

When Mayor Kavitha Sanil pointed out that there has been “inordinate delay” in implementing the project, DC Dr Jagadeesha and MCC Commissioner Mohammed Nazir said they needed to comply with the statutory requirements. Mangaluru City South MLA J.R. Lobo and councillors M. Shashidhar Hegde, Sabitha Miskith, Nagaveni and Abdul Rauf attended the meeting.