Hundreds of buses gather dust, govt wants more

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, June 24

Despite the fact that hundreds of low-floor buses of the HRTC have been parked idle in HRTC yards for the past two years, still Transport Minister Govind Thakur has announced to buy 200 new buses.

Govind Thakur, Transport Minister, announced in Shimla on Saturday that the HRTC would buy 200 new buses to check overloading. He said the state government would also introduce many other reforms in the transport sector to check the rising accidents. However, the minister has not disclosed what will be the fate of low-floor buses.

The Tribune has carried a news item in these columns in August last year in which Govind Thakur had said all low-floor buses would be used in three months. However, even after the expiry of 11 months, most of such buses are gathering dust in yards. These buses were received by the HRTC in 2016-17 under a Centrally sponsored programme for the far-flung areas where the transport services were negligible.

Because of administrative failures, the HRTC has failed to bring these buses on roads. Though the matter was brought to the notice of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur time and again by MLAs and residents, no steps were initiated for their utilisation.

At the same time, because of the shortage of buses, overloading has become a common feature, resulting in fatal mishaps.

A senior officer of the HRTC said, “The corporation has to recruit drivers and conductors which is a lengthy process.”

He admitted that if no steps were initiated, assets worth crores of rupees would go in drains. He said in most depots, there was no space to park these buses, therefore, these had been parked in the fields.

HRTC got these buses in 2016-17

• These buses were received by the HRTC  in 2016-17 under a Centrally sponsored programme for the far-flung areas where the transport services were negligible
• Because of administrative failures, the HRTC has failed to utilise buses
• Though the matter was brought to the notice of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur time and again by MLAs and residents, no steps have been initiated for their utilisation