Vellore officials seek land from HR and CE to complete new bus stand project

Being readied under the Vellore Smart City project, “the Vellore new bus stand has been repeatedly delayed due to various reasons and so public are the sufferers as they have to go to the old bus stand for all travel needs,” said Vellore District Consumer Federation president K Sathiyamoorthy.

Vellore civic officials said, “We need additional land to ensure enough pathway for passengers in the new bus stand and so have approached the Selliamman temple nearby for 998 square metres of their land for which we will hand over a similar quantum of government land.”

The idea was to build a tiered terminus where town buses would occupy the ground floor and the first floor would be allocated for mofussil buses. This was given up as a team of experts from Anna University after soil tests, revealed that the facility located hardly 100 metres from the Palar River would not support a tiered terminus. Plans were redrawn and it was decided to build a terminus with enough space for both local and mofussil buses at ground level.

“It is more than two years when the project started and we still do not know when it will be completed,” said Latha, a housewife.

Corporation Commissioner Ashok Kumar said, “Once the necessary land acquisition come through then we will forward files to the government who in turn will ensure that e HR & CE is given government land.” Asked if the project cost was revised, he said, “Yes, the original cost was Rs 46 crore, but now with the need for additional land it will increase by Rs 5 crore to reach Rs 51 crore.”