Faridabad depot to suspend some long-route buses

Bijendra Ahlawat
Tribune News Service
Faridabad, November 30

The local depot of Haryana Roadways is set to withdraw buses on some of the long routes soon. Plying of a dozen buses is likely to get affected, resulting in unavailability of state transport facility to commuters from the city.

The routes or destinations from which the buses are expected to be withdrawn after four weeks include Lucknow, Shimla and Kotdwar. While Shimla, an all-time favourite destination among commuters, is 382 km from here, Rishikesh and Kotdwar in Uttarakhand are located at a distance of 248 and 229 km, respectively. Lucknow is located at a distance of 538 km from here. Some buses to Hisar, Hansi and Haridwar are also likely to the discontinued.

Lack of staff due to withdrawal of overtime bonus facility for drivers and conductors is quoted to be the main reason behind the step.

“The drivers and conductors of the department have expressed their inability to work more than the normal duty hours (eight hours) in view of the withdrawal of overtime bonus”, sources in the department claimed.

While a driver needs to be on the steering wheel for around six hours, one can use two hours for other works, like break or maintenance of the vehicle. If a driver works for more than eight hours at a stretch or more than 48 hours in a week, he or she is due to get overtime bonus, as per the rules earlier. But since the withdrawal of the facility, the staff has refused to work more than the average (authorised) working hours, sources said.

Navneet Bajaj, Transport Manager, local depot, admitted that bus services on some of the long routes would be suspended shortly. He said these were likely to be withdrawn after a month as the Roadways had already paid the tax for December to other states. Claiming that low revenue and lack of staff were the main reasons, he said withdrawal of overtime bonus had also made the staff stick to official duty hours only.

The local depot has a total of 90 buses at present for long route operations.