HRTC to purchase 700 buses: Deputy CM

The Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) will add 700 new buses to its feet, including 297 electric and 24 super luxury buses, within the next four months.

Deputy Chief Minister Agnihotri, while addressing mediapersons here today, said that the HRTC had decided to purchase 297 electric buses. “The proposal for the purchase of 297 electric buses will be placed before the Cabinet and the buses will be added to the HRTC feet within the next four months,” he added. He chaired the Board of Director’s meeting of the HRTC held here.

He said that the process to purchase 24 new super luxury buses was in the final stage and a proposal in this regard would be sent to the Cabinet for approval. “In the meeting, approval was also given to invite tenders for the purchase of 250 diesel buses. These buses will be of 37-seater capacity. Besides, it was decided that the process for re-tendering would be initiated for the purchase of 100 mini buses,” he added.

Agnihotri said that the arrival of 700 new buses would facilitate transportation to the remote villages of the state, benefiting local residents and tourists as well. “Following the instructions of the Central Government to discard 15-year-old diesel buses, the fleet size of the HRTC buses will decrease. But the decision to purchase new buses will bring the fleet size back to normal,” he added. The Board of Directors also decided to purchase two quick response vehicles and four cranes.

The meeting was informed that the HRTC had earned an income of about Rs 70 crore in the past one year. “The HRTC is a welfare and not commercial organisation and runs buses on all loss-making routes so that people even in the remotest corner of the state get transportation facilities, besides providing subsidised travel to many categories of people,” he said.

HRTC Managing Director Rohan Chand Thakur said that in the near future, further improvements would be made in the working of the HRTC so that along with providing better services to people, the income of the corporation could also be increased.

The members of the Board of Directors, namely Principal Secretary RD Nazim, Director DC Negi, Special Secretary (Finance) Rohit Jamwal, newly appointed vice-president Ajay Verma and non-official members attended the meeting.