‘Mayor Express’ service at Re 1 in Bhopal

BHOPAL: ‘Bhopal Plus’ application is set to have a ‘Mayor Express’ service, through which the citizens of Bhopal can get services of plumber, carpenter, electrician, gardener, and alike at their door-step, all for rupee one till June 25.

In all 19 wards of Municipal Corporation, service providers would reach residents in blue and yellow dress. Rs 1 crore has been allocated for Mayor Express (plumber and electrician helpline) in the current civic body budget. “We are in beta testing mode and are looking for valuable inputs from citizens. The services with a new helpline number 155304 would go live from June 25,” said Neeraj Alia, whose company has been entrusted with operating the smart city citizen service.

Operations of ‘Mayor Express’ are being done from Chunna Bhatti and MP Nagar. Given the increased number of calls from areas like Ashoka Garden and walled city, another base station is likely to be opened in the old City soon. As per BMC’s new plan, the services would cost about Rs 200 as a home visit charge. Basic issues would be resolved in the call period for a fixed charge. Above and beyond the service call, charges would vary. However, during the beta testing of the service, the company will only charge Re 1 as token amount.

Mayor Express was first launched by BMC mayor Alok Sharma in February 2016. The service, which then functioned out of BMC office at Mata Mandir, has been offloaded to a private operator. BMC officials expect the service to be more professional under the new operator.