IUST stops transport facility for staff, revises route plan after discarding 17 buses

Srinagar, Feb 9: Around 37 percent of the Islamic University of Science and Technology (IUST) owned buses have gone off route following the recent directions of the Ministry of Transport under which several buses of the university have been discarded.

In wake of this out of 45 fleet of buses 17 buses stand discarded as per the government rules throwing a major challenge for the university administration to meet the student demand to accommodate them in the available fleet of buses.

The issue came to fore after the IUST administration issued a notification informing students that owing to the reduction in the fleet of University owned buses consequent upon the circular issued by the Ministry of Road, Transport and highways of India, the University has been constrained to revise the bus routes as many buses stand discarded.

“The interested students shall apply afresh for availing the transport facility on their respective routes by logging in on the transport portal through their login IDs,” the IUST notification reads.

It reads that the transport facility, however, would be provided only subject to the availability of vacancies on each route as per the applicable norms.

“The students shall have no claim based on mere submission of their applications for the said facility. Further, there shall be no transport facility for the employees of the University owing to limited resultant vacancies for students,” the notice reads.

The move has evoked criticism from students and staff of the IUST alike who said that travelling in public transport from other districts to IUST will cause immense problems for them.

“We have to mark our attendance on the biometric attendance system and we could have easily done that by availing university transport facilities and reaching the campus on time. But travelling in public transport from other districts to the University will be a major problem,” said a faculty member of IUST.

The students, mostly females, said their routes have been excluded and have been left to fend for themselves.

In-charge transport at IUST Mubashir Nazir said the University was constrained to take this decision as 17 out of 45 buses had to be discarded as per the latest circular of the ministry of transport.

“So, 17 buses will be off route now and we are left with only 28 buses. But in the meantime, the University has also floated a tender for outsourcing of the transport facility,” Mubashir Nazir told Greater Kashmir.

He said it will take some time to complete the process. “All of a sudden a huge fleet of buses got discarded, that is why we faced this problem. The higher authorities are looking into it and things will be resolved,” he said.