CTU set to start service to Rajasthan shrines next week

Dushyant Singh Pundir

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Chandigarh, June 10

For the convenience of commuters, the UT Transport Department has decided to start nine new AC and non-AC buses on four new routes, including famous religious places in Rajasthan, from the next week.

AC buses will run from the ISBT-17 for Shri Khatu Shyam, Shri Salasar Balaji and Jaipur via Rohtak. A non-AC bus will run to Tanakpur in Uttarakhand and start from the ISBT-43.

UT Administrator Banwarilal Purohit will flag off the AC buses to Salasar in Churu district and Khatu Shyam in Sikar district of Rajasthan on Monday.

The department has also decided to resume the service to Talwara, Jawalaji, Amritsar, Baijnath via Hamirpur and Nangal from the ISBT-43 and to Delhi from the ISBT-17.

Similarly, the department has also decided to resume non-AC bus service to nine sub-urban routes — from ISBT-17 to Khizrabad, Ambala Cantt, Tajpura to Morinda, Shahjadpur to Ambala Cantt, Nandpur Kalour to Ambala Cantt and Bassi Pathana to Ambala Cantt, and from ISBT-43 to Ropar to Baddi via Siswan, and Ropar to Nalagarh.

Besides, the department will resume 25 buses on 11 routes in the tricity, including from Maloya, New Maloya Colony, the ISBT-17 to Kharar, Maloya to Mansa Devi, the ISBT-17 to Nandiali and Kurali, etc.

With an aim to avoid overlapping of service on various routes across the tricity, which often led to buses running with low occupancy, and to build an easily usable network, the Transport Department has also collected the data of frequency of buses and occupancy, which would be analysed to provide a better transportation service to commuters.

It is pertinent to mention here that a report submitted by CEPT University, Ahmedabad, in March last year had highlighted major weaknesses in the city’s public transport, which resulted in only 11 per cent population regularly using the bus service, while nearly 80 per cent buses of the CTU, on an average, run vacant.