Chairman of Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service (AMTS), Atul Bhavsar, on Monday proposed the 2019-20 budget at Rs 488.08 crore, Rs 6.1 crore higher than the draft budget. The chairman stressed on improving services and increasing number of buses.

Bhavsar said that the AMTS’ aim is to regain the people’s trust. “We want to improve service quality and are focusing on enhancing the passenger fleet too. First, we will form a committee which will study the parallel routes of BRTS and AMTS,” said Bhavsar.

“Our study will look into the routes where BRTS and AMTS are running on parallel roads. We have also observed that the officers are mainly occupied with levying penalties. But we have told them that not penalty but the passengers are important,” said the chairman.

One of the committee members also said that they have asked the officers to report on cleanliness of buses, conduct of staff, timely operation and designated stopping zones.

“Time tables will be placed in each bus. This will display the total number of buses on the route, their timings, etc, for the public,” said the chairman.

The committee has also decided to provide buses on rent at a concessional rate for educational picnic purposes. “There are many institutes in the city such as Community Science Centre, Physical Research Centre, ATIRA, ISRO, etc, where educational tours are organised. We will rent out buses to public and private schools at concessional rates for such trips,” remarked Bhavsar.

Some spots such as Millatnagar depo, Srinath Depo, Vasna terminus and Naroda terminus, will get concrete roads.