SHILLONG: The Sustainable Transport and Efficient Mobility Society (STEMS) programme is aimed at reducing congestion in Shillong city of Meghalaya.
This was stated by Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma on Wednesday (March 22) during the question hour of the third day of the budget session of the Meghalaya legislative assembly.
Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma said that management of school buses under STEMS programme was mooted to reduce congestion in Shillong city.
He informed that most of the students coming to schools in Laitumkhrah-Dhankheti area use private mode of transportation.
The Meghalaya chief minister made this statement while replying to a starred question raised by Nongthymmai MLA Charles Pyngrope during the question hour.
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“A lot of discussion took place with the stakeholders like the schools, parents, police and government administration and a number of efforts were made to coordinate with schools to start bus services but we found that the schools were reluctant to run the buses as they stressed that it is a very complicated process and that their primary work is to teach and not to run bus services,” said Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma.
The Meghalaya CM further informed that to achieve the target of decongesting Shillong city while at the same time, react positively to the concerns raised by the schools, the government decided to start this innovative programme of involving the society to run these 30-seater mini diesel buses.
“We are piloting this project and so far, 15 schools have come forward to avail the services and if it works well, we can expand it to other parts of the state,” the chief minister said, adding that Rs 11.3 crore was earmarked for this project and the amount spent was Rs 0.19 crore. “The project is fully funded by the government through the Planning Department,” the Meghalaya CM said.