Shillong, May 1: Meghalaya Urban Affairs Minister Hamletson Dohling on Tuesday inspected depots where the damaged Shillong Transport Public Service (STPS) buses were being parked and found that the government has to pay a rent of about 50,000 every month for keeping these buses.

Dohling inspected the depots at Mawpat, Laitkor and Mawlai Mawkynroh as well as the depot of the government at Mawblei where 7 damaged SPTS buses are being kept there.

The government has been paying rent to private land owners for the past two years.

A total of 53 damaged buses were proposed for disposing of by the Urban Affairs department out of 120 buses sanctioned in the phase-I under the erstwhile Central scheme – Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewable Mission (JNNURM) in 2010.

Buses supplied by other companies are also not in good condition due to poor maintenance.

The Urban Affairs department is paying Rs 40,000 a month for a depot at Laitkor where 17 buses are being parked, and for 9 buses parked at Mawlai Mawkynroh the land owner is charging Rs 550 per bus per month which comes to Rs 4950 a month.

At Mawpat, 20 buses are also parked, and a rent of Rs 5,000 per month was being paid by Synroplang Self Help Group that runs these buses.

Dohling said that he decided to have an inspection in order to assess the condition of these buses and after inspecting them, it was found that some buses need minor repair, while some require to be disposed of due to high repairing cost.

He also admitted that these damaged buses have caused unnecessary expenditure to the department.

The Minister said that he has asked for an immediate report on the matter, so as to speed up the process of disposing of these buses to avoid such unnecessary expenditure in future.