KUMARHATTI: The lack of bus stand at Dharampur, 4 km from here has come as a major problem over 500 passengers that travel by bus between this town to places like Shimla, Solan, Kasauli, Subathu, Kunihar and Arki daily.
In the lack of a bus stand, buses and other vehicles were usually queued up on the highway, thus posing threat to the pedestrians. The private taxis have to be parked along highway for want of proper space. The traffic snarls was now a routine in town. The moving of heavy traffic on the highway was further making the area more accident-prone.
The few years back it was planned to convert a MES yard site into bus stand. The MES yard was lying virtually unused now. The yard was the only available place along highway to set up the bus stand. In fact the Dharampur panchayat had agreed to give a piece of land to Army in lieu to get yard land. However the idea had failed to find any favour with Army.
Due to the lack of space at bus stand point the passengers have to go through an ordeal till they board the buses concerned. The most affected were women, who in the absence of sufficient place for sitting found it hard to wait for buses in the open. The HPPWD (NH) rain shelter at the bus stand point was insufficient to accommodate the passengers.
The situation worsened during rain when passengers could be seen running for shelter in nearby shops. The public toilet at the bus stand point was in mess as it remained uncleaned for day’s altogether.
