Last batch of 15 buses to go off road from Feb 26

The city will be rendered without the city bus service completely from February 26 onwards as the agreement with the firm running these buses comes to an end on February 25.

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The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) funded the purchase of 120 city buses in 2011. Initially, these buses were run by the MC and it earned profit as well but later it was unable to properly run the vehicles and these were handed over to a private firm for operations.

The firm was given 83 buses for operating in 2015 while the remaining 37 has got defunct by that time and are still lying at a depot located on Tajpur Road. In 2022, a decision was taken to auction these buses but the process could not be completed till date.

The city bus contract, started on January 25, 2015, came to an end on January 25, 2024. Afterwards, the private firm started returning the buses and 15 were still operational as according to one of the conditions of the agreement, it was required that the buses should have covered 5,00,000 km before being returned, which led to the delay in returning of the last batch.

At present, 15 buses were running on two routes, from the bus stand to Kohara and from Clock Tower to Sahnewal.

The MC also held a discussion with the PRTC to operate these buses on city routes but it could not be materialised. In such a situation, rickshaws, e-rickshaws, auto-rickshaws and cabs will be the only option left with residents to commute within the city.

Factory workers and students were primary users of the city bus service and with the last few buses also going off the road soon, concerns have been raised and the MC has been urged to come up with an alternative option for commuting.

Parkash Kumar, who works at a factory in Kohara, commutes through a city bus and spends Rs 25 daily. He is worried that the city bus service in this route was soon going to end. “Currently my factory is giving me the travel expenses but with the bus fare going up, I don’t think they will increase my allowance. It seems I will have to shell out from my own pocket for the same,” he said.

Anu, who works at a hospital in Sahnewal and commutes through a city bus, is now worried as to how she will reach her workplace in the absence of the bus service.

Mayor Inderjit Kaur said the city bus service was the lifeline of the city residents and they won’t let it discontinue. “We are working on a proposal regarding the service which is in the finalising stage and it will be announced soon,” she said.

8 routes of city bus service

Bus stand to Kohara (running till Feb 25), Clock Tower to Sahnewal (running till Feb 25), bus stand to Ferozepur road octroi post (discontinued) railway station to Meharbaan (discontinued) Clock Tower to Haibowal (discontinued) Clock Tower to Shimlapuri (discontinued), Clock Tower to Malakpur (discontinued) and Dugri to Metro (discontinued).