The Otago Regional Council (ORC) is proceeding with the construction of new bus shelters on Dunedin bus routes, to provide shelter for waiting commuters.

ORC director policy and resource planning Fraser McRae said Council has asked Dunedin City Council (DCC) to continue installing new bus shelters, rather than wait for completion of a district plan change. Under the current district plan resource consent is required before bus shelters can be built.

"For the year to the end of June 2010, there are sufficient funds available to build at least 20 new bus shelters and we aim to get these in place by that time," Mr McRae said.

"The DCC has been provided with a list of bus stops requiring shelters and asked to identify those which can be built at reasonable cost this financial year," he said.

Nineteen new bus shelters were built in the past financial year and the ORC is looking at ways to minimise costs in all areas of bus shelter placement to free up more funds and increase the number of bus shelters built.

Mr McRae said there are an estimated 1,000 bus stops in the whole Dunedin bus network and 208 currently have bus shelters. Around 250 inward bus stops still need shelters.