Punjab govt gives green signal to private buses hitting city roads
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08/05/2008
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Indian Express (Chandigarh)
Despite objections by the Punjab Roadways Transport Corporation and roadways unions, the Punjab Government has approved a draft that will allow private buses to operate in Chandigarh. All the buses will be air-conditioned and will start from various cities in Punjab including Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Bathinda. Till now, only state roadways buses had been plying in Chandigarh from Punjab. The decision, however, will mean slashing the profit of the already cash-strapped state roadways, say officials. "The state roadways will first have to compete with private operators who have the AC advantage. Then passengers from nearby areas in Punjab will think twice before boarding a state roadways bus considering that the journey will have to cut short and the passenger will have to pay extra to reach ISBT-17. The CTU choice will save him distance, time and money,' said an official. According to the agreement, private bus operators stand to benefit by 670 kilometre per day. At least 77 private buses have been given clearance in the first go. It has been decided that for every Punjab bus that plies in Chandigarh, two buses from Chandigarh will ply in Punjab. The logic is that Chandigarh has a smaller area than Punjab. According to the draft, against the 14,930 kilometre allowed for Punjab, CTU buses will ply 29,562 kilometre in Punjab. Another resistance to the approved draft is on the restriction on Punjab buses plying on local routes from short distance, say from Kharar to Chandigarh, to culminate their trip at the Sector-43 Bus Stand instead of ISBT-17. Officials claim the restriction is not uniform and that Punjab stands to lose on passengers. They claim that a CTU bus from Kharar near Punjab can drop passengers at ISBT-17 but the concession has not been extended to Punjab buses plying on local routes. Said Punjab Transport Secretary D S Jaspal, "We were open to a private bus service within the UT from the very start. The UT had objections. Now it has been cleared. It's not just about profit. Passengers will get to travel in AC buses'. On roadways buses culminating at the Sector 43 bus stand, Jaspal said, "The UT had, about a month ago, decided on this. No roadways buses go beyond this'.