Illegal movement of pvt buses goes on unabated in district

Ajay Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, November 21

The Congress government’s assurance of putting a break on the illegal transport lobby has failed to see action even after completion of the 2.5 years of the Captain Amarinder Singh-led state government.

Punjab Roadways is suffering huge losses, majorly due to a nexus between illegal travel agents and private buses plying without any transport permit. As many as 125 buses were found plying illegally during raids conducted by the Roadways Department in a crackdown on November 15 and 16 alone.

The “extended route permits” of these buses is eating up the revenue of Punjab Roadways in crores.

An official said on a daily basis, the roadways had been incurring a loss of over Rs 3 lakh due to the illegal transport services. Besides, there was no check on the buses with tourist permits, that ferry passengers illegally at unauthorised stops.

Roadways inspectors said the illegal private buses, mostly running in night or early morning hours, sans registration certificates and road tax papers.

The road connecting both roadways depots had become a hub of illegal travel agents. At the local bus stand, travel agents can be spotted operating booking centres right under the nose of district Punjab Roadways depots. At small cubic kiosks, hardly 10 meters away from the roadways depots, the agents are openly booking tickets 24x7.

Roadways Depot 2 inspector Sukhwinder said some buses with permits for other states (for which it is illegal to ply in Punjab), ferry passengers in the city and operate in night hours.

Sukwinder said: “Besides, causing huge losses to the roadways bus fleet, these buses ferry passengers with reduced rates. For instance, a luxury roadways bus ticket to Delhi costs around Rs 915, whereas in illegal private buses it ranges between Rs 500-600,” Sukhwinder said.

As a result, on several routes, the per-km ticket-fares of the roadways buses had to be dropped, said the roadways traffic manager.

The booking counters of these Illegal buses are also available online, making the ferrying process easy for operators. Besides outer circles of the city, the illegal buses ferry passengers from Garha Road, opposite the local bus stand.

As per the report collected from the Roadways Depot 1 General Manager Parmeet Singh Minhas, the latest crackdown on illegal buses was conducted on Noverber 15 and 16.

He said around 125 buses were found plying illegally. As many as 52 buses were caught on the Amritsar, Pathankot and Hoshiarpur route, 31 on the Jammu-Pathankot route, 18 on the Rama Mandi-Ludhiana-Pataila-Ambala-Delhi route, eight on the Nawanshar, Jandiala route. The remaining 16 buses were trapped by the Depot 2 roadways inspectors. A survey on illegal buses was also conducted in the beginning of the year. The major offenders included Pyar Bus Services, followed by Rathore, Chatras, Baba Buddha, Shekar, etc.

The illegal movement of sleeper buses in the state is another major concern, though most of these illegal buses to Delhi, Jaipur, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Agra attract passengers by offering them sleeper seats. Minhas said as per the transport clauses, sleeper buses were banned by the government due to the safety concerns of passengers.