As roadways expands its service to int’l airport, 3 buses challaned

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, November 15

A tiff between the Indo-Canadian Transport and the Punjab Roadways over their services related to the ferrying of passengers to the Delhi international airport seems to have ensued again. Yesterday, three buses of the Jalandhar depot were reportedly impounded and challaned by the Delhi transport authorities for allegedly “not being able to produce counter signatures”. The Punjab Roadways authorities had to intervene to get the buses released but had to pay Rs 5,000 challan for each of the three buses. The roadways authorities were reportedly told that their buses would not be allowed to enter the airport terminal and would be limited till the bus stand.

Punjab Roadways employees have termed the action against the roadways buses as 'high-handedness' on the part of the Delhi transport authorities as they have said “no bus from any state entering New Delhi could produce a counter signature as Delhi has not entered into any agreement with states for transport services since a long time."

The roadways staff alleged that the Delhi-based authorities were acting against them at the behest of the Indo-Canadian Transport (which is reportedly owned by the Badal family) as the profits of the latter were drastically cut since the roadways enhanced its trips to the Delhi airport.

“We are a stage carrier while the Indo-Canadian Transport is a contract carrier. They cannot make individual bookings like us. The entire bus has to be booked by a group such as a tourist bus. They cannot have timings like us and cannot keep stopping anywhere en route to pick passengers as they used to do from Phagwara, Goraya and Ludhiana. But we can have 10 stages (or stops) en route like that. Hence, we have one at the Delhi bus stand and then at the Delhi airport,” an official of the Punjab Roadways said.

The Roadways staff maintain that being an NRI hub, the Jalandhar depot of the Punjab Roadways was making a huge profit.

“We have nine buses running from the city bus stand and have earned Rs 1 crore in just a month. Our Rs 1 crore means a loss of Rs 3 crore for the Indo-Canadian company as their fare is three times more than us,” said a union leader.

The Punjab Roadways charges Rs 1,065 per passenger while Indo-Canadian firm levies an amount of around Rs 3,000, including tax, for every passenger. Interestingly, the PRTC too has started six more airport buses running from Patiala, Ludhiana and Kapurthala (total 15 from the state), further affecting the business of the Indo-Canadian firm.

The Delhi transport authorities have demanded that if the Indo-Canadian firm was committing an illegality in the state, the Punjab Roadways should get action initiated against it in Punjab itself, where these have an origin and final destination after the trip.

“We should not be blamed for any partisan role. If not Punjab, even the Haryana transport authorities, through which these buses traverse for 150 km, too can act against the private player for any illegality that it is committing,” said officials present.

State Transport Commissioner, New Delhi, KK Dahiya, said: “We cannot allow other state buses to pick passengers from places other than our three ISBTs.”