noida the absence of a dedicated city bus service has made commuting a daily challenge for the residents of noida and greater noida who are forced to heavily rely on autos and cabs for lastmile connectivityup state road transport corporation upsrtc runs some 300 buses from noida and greater noida that connect gautam budh nagar with neighbouring districts but there is no dedicated city bus service for the convenience of those who dont own or use personal vehicles this is despite the district developing into an industrial and residential hub over the years according to residents a robust public transportation system they said will not only help decongest the roads of the twin cities but also deter autos and cabs from charging extra from commuterssanjeev kumar a resident of noida sector 51 said one bus can simply replace 10 private cars on the roads and this will help in decongesting the city autos do not ply by meters and they overcharge cabs also overcharge on the pretext of dynamic fares most of the time a city bus service is the need of the houralok singh a resident of sector alpha 1 in greater noida echoed similar sentiments the buses are available from pari chowk to botanical garden in noida and viceversa however the problem is lastmile connectivity people do not get buses from pari chowk to internal sectors in greater noida and botanical garden to internal sectors in noida they rely on autos and cabs which charge exorbitantlypeople living in sectors along the noidagreater noida expressway face similar problems abhisht kusum gupta a resident of noidas sector 137 said there was an earlier nmrc bus service earlier which was discontinued in 2020 there is no bus service in my sector my wife is a scientist with indian agricultural research institute and she takes an erickshaw from home to sector 142 and then takes a bus for noida expressway he told toialthough there are around 3007 registered buses with the transport department most of them are on contract with private companies to ferry their employees siyaram verma assistant regional transport officer of noida said the transport departments mandate is registration of vehicles and not its operation np singh upsrtc noidas assistant regional manager said that the noida depot operates 144 buses while the greater noida depot operates 139 buses which ferry commuters to neighbouring districts like meerut bijnor agra badhan mainpuri in up and haridwar in uttarakhand these buses also connect noidas botanical garden to greater noidas pari chowk the roadways buses do not cover sectors like city bus service he saidon their part private bus operators said they were badly hit by the covidinduced lockdown earlier there were around 2000 private buses in noida but some of them were sold off and some others impounded by banks as the owners defaulted on loan payment said sandeep dhupar of gb nagar bus owners associationnow there are 700800 private buses in the city these buses ply between noida and greater noida and