Ludhiana city bus service gets off track

Harshraj Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 23

As the authorities concerned seemed to be not serious to improve the Ludhiana city bus service, nearly 70 per cent of the city buses are not plying on road at present. Under the city bus service that was launched with much fanfare in 2011, 120 buses were purchased in different phases by the Ludhiana City Bus Service Limited under the MC, Ludhiana.

Around 35 city buses with missing parts have been already lying defunct on Tajpur Road for more than the past five years. Many of the new buses got defunct within a short period. As no lesson has been learnt, now more city buses (mostly big buses), which have been stationed near Dairy Complex on Hambran Road, are gathering dust.

Under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) Project worth Rs 65.20 crore, there was a plan to buy 200 buses but only 120 buses were purchased. A demand to start city buses on the routes to various localities and also to educational institutes has been ignored for a long time.

There is no direct bus or auto-rickshaw service available to a number of city areas and also several colleges. The MC had earlier planned to start buses on new routes, but to no avail.

Col JS Brar of Maha Sabha (NGO) said, “It is a matter of big concern how the new buses had got defunct in a short period. A criminal case should be registered against those responsible for the same. Those who failed the service should be exposed.”

“A huge amount was spent on purchasing these buses. The city bus service must be improved and all the buses should be run on various routes for the convenience of residents,” said Col Brar.

A forensic audit report prepared by a third-party firm had earlier also highlighted that how Ludhiana City Bus Service Limited had suffered losses and its interest was apparently ignored. But, no action was taken to improve the bus service.

When the bus service was launched, the MC’s Ludhiana City Bus Service Limited used to operate the service itself and generating profit. In 2013, it had handed over the bus service to a private firm that operated buses till July 2014.

When the city bus service was stalled for some months and tyres and other parts of a number of city buses were getting damaged in 2014, Congress leaders had protested to awake the then state government and Municipal Corporation authorities. To highlight the issue, some Congress leaders had also cleaned several buses at that time. But, even at the time of the Congress government in the state at present, the city bus service is still crying for attention.

A BJP leader, Inder Aggarwal, said, “The civic body has not collected pending dues from the current private operator. Despite spending crores of rupees, more city buses are getting damaged but no action is being taken to improve the service. Why the Congress is silent over the poor condition of the city us service now?”

In January 2015, the MC had signed an agreement with another private firm that is still operating the buses. Jaskirat Singh, MD of the private firm, said, “The MC had handed over 83 buses to us. Now, we need only 55 buses as per the availability of the routes. We have written to the authorities to take back the remaining buses. At present, we are plying 37-38 city buses (mini) on four routes. If we are given permission of new routes up to the areas located outside the MC’s limit, we can run buses in an easy way.”

Senior Deputy Mayor Sham Sundar Malhotra said, “We will look into the matter once the Covid-19 situation improves.”

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