Noida: Vishal Singh has been to Botanical Garden several times since the new e-bus service, to Noida airport among other routes, was launched. He has, like many others, been foxed by what he has seen. There is no designated area where the bus stops, no counter or signage to help passengers, no staff posted there to assist and no time table put up anywhere. “I am yet to see a single bus. Who is going to wait for a bus that never comes !” he said.Days after its June 15 rollout, the e-bus service, expected to plug the last-mile connectivity to Noida airport, appears to be struggling to take off. A fleet of hundred electric buses was launched across Noida, Greater Noida and the Yamuna Authority area as a convenient public transport alternative but the absence of designated stops along the routes has emerged as the biggest issue. A student, Jayant Chaudhary, who commutes daily from Knowledge Park in Greater Noida to Sector 16 for a photography course, said he too has never been able to use the service despite waiting for it several times. “There is no app, no timetable and no information about when the buses will arrive, leave or where they will stop. We don’t even know where exactly we are supposed to wait,” he said.Although four dedicated bus shelters have been built, they remain largely deserted, covered in dust. At the Botanical Garden terminal, the starting point for at least four routes in Noida, street vendors continue to encroach on the premises while overflowing drains creating unhygienic conditions. Passengers have to cross the road to board private buses, while the terminal itself is occupied by auto-rickshaws, e-rickshaws and private buses headed towards Agra, Aligarh and Mathura.On July 2, after this reported waited for nearly 25 minutes, an electric bus finally pulled into the terminal around 2.10 pm. A handful of passengers got off. The bus halted for about five minutes and then headed for the depot.Driver Umesh Singh admitted that the service was yet to make its presence felt. “It is too early. We are not getting many passengers yet,” he said. When asked how commuters were expected to identify boarding points or buy tickets in the absence of designated bus stops, he said the buses now stop wherever passengers flag them down. “There are no designated bus stops for us yet. They are being prepared, but until people become aware of the routes, this is how we are operating,” he said.The buses operate on five routes, at a 20-minute frequency, connecting Botanical Garden with Noida City Centre, Sector 50, Pari Chowk and Noida International Airport before returning to the depot.During a visit to the Botanical Garden terminal, TOI found seven of the 26 buses assigned to Yamuna Authority routes parked, waiting to be charged. Driver Vikas Sharma attributed the delay to inadequate charging infrastructure. “There are five charging stations here, but one has stopped functioning. It takes around two hours to fully charge a bus. Until then, we have to wait. These seven buses should have been on the road by now,” he conceded.Depot supervisor Aman Singh acknowledged the problems, saying officials were still fine-tuning operations. “We have asked some buses to be charged at the Noida City Centre depot for now. We have the schedule ready and are working on ways to improve passenger awareness,” he said.The state transport corporation officials said the infrastructure will take a little more time. “It is under the ambit of Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna authorities and they are looking into it. We are also working on an app, making it convenient for passengers to book tickets,” they said.
