Continuing to provide you all with amazing aerial photographs of bus depots, here is a drone photograph, but this time from a different city.
Older readers of BESTpedia might remember that in 2015, when I was undergoing an internship in Gurgaon (now called Gurugram) I had written about ways to get around the city. (Read: Getting around Gurgaon)
In the older post, I had mentioned about buses operated by the Haryana Roadways. In the five years that have elapsed since my short, yet memorable stay in the Millienium City, also erroneously referred to as Cyber City, a lot has changed. For starters, the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA)– since renamed to Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) – no longer has jurisdiction over the city and handles the rest of the state while Gurgaon now comes under the aegis of the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) and Faridabad comes under the Faridabad MDA (FMDA).
Further, intra-city buses in Gurgaon are no longer handled by Haryana Roadways but by a new agency – the Gurugram Metropolitan City Bus Limited (GMCBL) that is a joint venture between the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon, GMDA and the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Corporation Limited (HSIICL). In 2019, owing to the financial troubles that Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) was facing, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) took over Rapid Metro operations as well.
Here is what a GMCBL bus looks like.
Now, coming to the aerial view that I was talking about. Gurgaon is among the rare cities in India which has a Metro Depot adjacent to a Bus Depot.
The 11.7km-long RMRG line features two depots, a small one that is located adjacent to the Cybercity Phase 3 Station which is the first elevated metro depot in the country. This was opened along with the first phase of the line in 2013. Here is an aerial view of this from 2016.
The second depot which is much larger, meanwhile is located at the other end of the line, near the Sector 55-56 station. It is this depot that is located adjacent to GMCBL’s bus depot. And here is it’s picture. You’ll have to click on the image to view it.
Shot during the ongoing lockdown using a drone by Gunj Guglani, this was shared recently by TheMetroRailGuy (TMRG) who runs a fantabulous website documenting India’s metro rail. Do check it out here: themetrorailguy.com.
A double bonanza featuring both a bus depot and a metro depot!
That’s all for me for the time being. Remember, share this post, and if you can, do back me up on Patreon. Times are hard and us Bloggers are among the worst affected.
Become a Patron!Featured Image: Gurugram City Bus (Picture Credits: GMCBL/Twitter)
