7 yrs on, Dharamsala bus stand work far from complete

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, August 31

Being the abode of the spiritual leader Dalai Lama, Dharamsala is an international tourist destination but the interstate bus stand in the city is in a poor state. The bus stand building is in a shambles due to the lack of repairs causing inconvenience to domestic and international tourists.

Due to the poor maintenance of the bus stand, its retaining walls along the Kotwali market area have fallen apart at various places. This has rendered many private buildings, like the Kangra museum located uphill, unsafe.

The Bus Stand Development Authority of the HRTC had awarded the contract for the construction of a new modern bus stand in Dharamsala to a private contractor in the Private Public Partnership (PPP) mode, on Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis. As per the agreement, which was executed during the stint of the previous Congress government in 2017, the private contractor was to build the bus stand at his own cost and run it for 40 years. After 40 years, he was to hand it back to the HRTC.

Govt permission awaited

Once the permission is obtained from the government, the land on which the bus stand is to be constructed will be sub-leased to the contractor. Then he will submit maps for approval to the local authorities. I hope that the work on the new bus stand will start soon. — Rohan Thakur, HRTC Managing Director

However, the construction of the bus stand is yet to start even after seven years. Sources say that the contractor has not started the work on the bus stand as the land on which it is to be constructed has not been handed over to him so far.

The sources say that the new bus stand is to come up on about 20 kanals, out of which 10 kanals is forestland. Though there are no trees on the forestland and it is already being used for the bus stand purpose, the Union Ministry of Forest and Environment only recently gave the clearance for the use of the forestland for the construction of the bus stand.

Managing Director, HRTC, Rohan Thakur, says that the contract for building the bus stand in the PPP mode was signed with a private contractor in 2017. After that the BJP came to power in the state and its government moved a case for the cancellation of the contract in 2019, which was stalled due to the Covid broke out.

The bus stand project involves three parcels of land. One part of the land is free from all encumbrances but forest clearance is required for the remaining two parcels of land. The forest clearance for the land to be used for the construction of the bus stand was obtained about one-and-a-half years ago. After that the bus stand authorities were to sub-lease the land to the private contractor. However, revenue officials raised an objection that the land could not be sub-leased. For this purpose, a case was submitted to the government for seeking permission to sub-lease the land to the contractor.

“Once the permission is obtained from the government, the land on which the bus stand is to be constructed will be sub-leased to the contractor. Then he will submit maps for approval to the local authorities. The matter has been sorted out and I hope that the work on the new bus stand will start soon,” says Thakur.