Mohali will have city bus service soon, says Sidhu

Tribune News Service

Mohali, July 25

Mohali will soon have its city bus service. This was stated by local MLA and Punjab Cabinet Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu here today.

Notably, the resolution for starting the city bus service was among the 55 resolutions of the Mohali Municipal Corporation (MC) that has been lying pending with the Local Government for approval for long. The MC House had passed the resolution on September 7 last year.

According to MC officials, the MC House has already passed a plan of 14 bus routes, covering all parts of the town, along with some peripheral areas. For bus routes permits, the MC has also sent communiqués to the Punjab Transport Department. Under the project, the MC has planned to run 50 buses on 14 routes in the first phase. Then, the number of buses will be increased to 200.

“Ten years have passed since the authorities started working on the project but the outcome has been zero so far. Political leaders and the authorities should do something concrete, instead of making repeated statements in this regard,” said RP Sharma, a city councillor here.

Punjab Roadways to add over 300 buses

Punjab Roadways will add 333 ordinary and 31 super integral air-conditioned buses to its fleet within two months. This was announced by Punjab Transport Minister Aruna Chaudhary, who was in the town to flag off 10 air-conditioned and four ordinary buses to different destinations from Baba Banda Singh Bahadur ISBT at Phase 6 here today.

Talking to mediapersons, the minister said the government would spend Rs 104 crore to add new buses. “Presently, the roadways has a total of 1,844 buses—1,810 ordinary and 34 super integral coach AC buses. We have also planned to replace old buses with new ones in a phased manner,” said Chaudhary, adding that the AC buses would ply on the routes to the Delhi airport, Jaipur, Katra, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Pathankot, Ferozpur and Hoshiarpur.

“With the addition of new buses, the Transport Department will be able to earn Rs 160 crore more per year. With this, we will be able to stop illegal plying of buses by private operators,” said the minister.

The minister added that all depots of Punjab Roadways would be computerised at a cost of Rs 21.27 crore.