CS orders urgent purchase of buses for UTC
By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 19 Nov: Chief Secretary Radha Raturi today instructed the Uttarakhand Transport Corporation (UTC) to immediately work on a short-term action plan and increase the frequency of roadways buses to Delhi, especially on weekends. She also issued instructions to coordinate with UP for this.
The Chief Secretary also directed the Transport Secretary to hold talks at the appropriate level, today, on the proposal to purchase 175 buses. Along with this, she also directed that the operation of 100 CNG buses for which the tender process has been completed and 30 buses have been received, be started soon.
It may be recalled that, in view of high level of pollution prevailing in Delhi and the NCT, the Delhi Government has disallowed the entry of Euro 3 and 4 buses in Delhi. As a result, about 200 buses of UTC have not been able to enter Delhi during the past few days, causing high level of inconvenience to the passengers.
To provide immediate relief to the general public, Radha Raturi today directed the Transport Department to talk to Uttar Pradesh to operate UTC buses to Mohan Nagar in Ghaziabad as well as Kaushambi. Buses fulfilling the current pollution control standards will directly enter Delhi. Those not fulling this criterion should be still able to go to the Delhi border at Mohan Nagar and Kaushambi.
In the meeting, Uttarakhand Transport Corporation informed her that before the ban on old model diesel buses due to pollution in Delhi, 504 roadways buses under UTC were operating daily on the Delhi route, but now only 310 buses fulfilling the pollution control standards are being allowed entry. As many as 194 buses have been banned entry in Delhi. Before the ban, the load factor of roadways buses was around 40 percent, which is now 90 to 100 percent due to the decrease in the frequency of bus services. In the meeting, the officials claimed that the passengers travelling to Delhi are not facing any special inconvenience. The Chief Secretary has given instructions to clarify the misleading information in this regard.
Principal Secretary RK Sudhanshu, Secretary Brijesh Sant, Additional Secretary Anand Shrivastava, and officials of the Transport Department were present at the meeting.
