LOKMAT NEWS NETWORK
Nashik, Dec 5
The management of the Citilinc, the inter-city bus service run by the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) has received a deposit of Rs 50 lakh from the new contractor, thus sealing the deal and providing an alternative to the existing contractor. Citizens of Nashik can now be free of frequent strikes.
The Citilinc management was preparing to appoint another contractor to provide conductors for 100 buses, as an alternative to the existing contractor firm. The Citilinc had also executed a new tender in this regard. In the tender process, Unity Company from Nagpur was awarded the contract. But the new contractor firm was avoiding depositing Rs 1 crore. When the Citilinc administration sent a reminder for the second time to them, they made a payment of fifty percent of the deposit amount, which is Rs 50 lakh. The administration has said that the remaining amount will also be deposited soon. Meanwhile, because of the new contractor, citizens will now be rid of the problem of frequent strikes.
Citilinc currently serves citizens from two depots namely, Panchavati and Nashik Road. Since the conductors in both these depots are from the same company, in case of a strike, the entire bus service is stopped. Therefore, to eliminate the monopoly of the existing contractor, the NMC administration aimed to appoint another contractor and chose Unity Company from Nagpur.
Info
The contractor firm from Nagpur was reluctant to pay the deposit amount. There was a discussion as to whether this would hurt the municipal administration's efforts to break the old contractor's monopoly. However, the NMC sent two reminders to the concerned company asking them to pay the deposit. And they did.