Abu Dhabi: With temperatures soaring, Abu Dhabi residents who commute by public transport are crying foul over bus stops that lack air-conditioning.
Many told XPRESS the long wait for buses in the sweltering heat is getting increasingly difficult as there are many bus stops in and around the city which are not air-conditioned.
Long wait
Raja Manikandan, an Indian expatriate who works as an office assistant and who travels to and from Mussaffah daily, said it is going to be difficult to endure this summer. “The sun is scorching in the afternoons and sometime we have to wait 40 to 50 minutes to catch a bus,” he said.
With the Department of Transport (DoT) planning to have 360 air-conditioned bus stops in Abu Dhabi by 2014, it is still a long wait for commuters before they can relax in cooler shelters. The Dh100-million project to build 160 air-conditioned bus stops in Abu Dhabi, 120 in Al Ain and 80 in Al Gharbia started early this year.
But a quick tour around the city showed many of these bus stops are in run-down condition. Many are open-fronted with no cooling facilities, dirty and poorly maintained with broken glass and damaged seating.
The new air-conditioned bus stops that have been installed have manual doors and can accommodate up to 25 people. Some even have seating facilities for those with special needs.
May Fernandes, a Filipina nurse, said some bus shelters are too dirty to sit. “I commute by public bus almost every day to Mafraq. It is sad to see how people have damaged some bus shelters by spitting inside and writing graffiti. I think commuters have to be blamed for turning these bus shelters into eyesores,” she said.
You Speak
Should bus stops have guards to prevent miscreants from damaging them?
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