Bhubaneswar: Plans are afoot to redevelop all bus stands in Odisha while the major ones will get a facelift with shopping malls and multiplexes soon, said Urban Development Minister Pratap Jena on the sidelines of the Capital Region Urban Transport (CRUT) workshop here.

“The State government is considering to develop all bus stands with better facilities. The major ones will get shopping mall and multiplex facilities. This apart, number of buses of state-run OSRTC will be increased on public private partnership (PPP) mode,” added the Minister.

Mentioning that around 1.30 lakh riders use ‘Mo Bus’ services daily, the Minister said, “Within six months, the CRUT will add 189 more buses including 50 electric ones to its fleet.” Also, the ‘Mo Bus’ will expand its services in new routes.

Speaking at the inaugural session Arun Bothra, Managing Director, CRUT said, “Mo Bus graph is constantly going up. Credit for this goes to the riders who have trusted us from the beginning of service and give us constant feedback for improvement. We aim to reach 1.50 lakh ridership within next six months.”

Recently the Centre praised the Odisha government for running the Mo Bus services, he added.