Suspended due to Covid outbreak, HRTC’s Kotla-Delhi bus service not yet restored

Local people are demanding the restoration of the long-route Kotla-Delhi bus service of the Una depot of the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) that was suspended during the Covid pandemic. They have also raised the issue with Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri, who also holds the transport portfolio, but got only hollow assurances.

Owing to the discontinuance of this bus service, people commuting to Baddi, Parwanoo and Brotiwala, industrial hubs of the state, are facing immense difficulties. Employees working in private companies at these places have lost direct connectivity and they have to travel to Nurpur, Dehra or Pathankot to get a direct bus to reach their destinations. Before the long-route service was suspended, the bus used to leave Kotla in the Jawali Assembly constituency at 4 pm and reach New Delhi around 6 am the next day, while it left New Delhi at 5 pm and reached Kotla at 7 am the next day.

On public demand, this bus service was started on the initiative of then Vice-Chairman of the HRTC Kewal Singh Pathania during the last Virbhadra Singh government. The residents of the Jawali, Dehra, Shahpur, Kangra and Jawalamukhi constituencies in Kangra district used this long-route bus service to travel to industrial towns in Solan district, Chandigarh and New Delhi. However, after remaining suspended for two years during the pandemic, the HRTC had restored the bus service but again discontinued it after a few days.

Local residents Sunil, Ashok, Jeevan, Abhishek and Shiv Bhardwaj, who used to travel on the Kotla-Delhi route, say that this bus service connecting five Assembly constituencies in Kangra district facilitated the youths, who were working in Himachal and other states. They have appealed to Agnihotri to restore this service forthwith keeping in view the larger public interest. The residents of local gram panchayats have also flagged the demand of the restoration of the bus service.

According to sources in the HRTC Regional Office in Una, this bus service was suspended due to poor revenue it generated.