Relief for commuters as MC extends bus service contractor’s agreement

The city bus service will continue to ply on the city roads as the municipal corporation (MC) has extended the contract of the bus service contractor. The civic body will also float a fresh tender for hiring a new contractor for the purpose.

This has provided relief to the people of Ludhiana. Although the agreement with the firm running these buses came to an end on February 25, a clause in the contract says that the bus service cannot be stopped if there is any arbitration going on in the court and this has led to the plying of the buses on city roads. Presently, 15 buses are running on two routes, from the bus stand to Kohara and from the Clock Tower to Sahnewal, and these will continue running.

The next date of hearing is scheduled for March 10. Municipal Corporation Commissioner Aaditya Dachalwal said that since the litigation regarding the city bus service was going on in the court, so the bus service could not be discontinued. Dachalwal said that until this tender process is completed and a contractor is hired for running city bus services, the civic body has decided to extend the contract of the existing contractor (Horizon Connect Transways Pvt Ltd), so that the public should not face any trouble.

“We will wait for the court to take a decision and meanwhile, we are also planning to float fresh tenders for running of city bus service. Earlier, discussions were held with the PRTC to operate these buses on city routes, but it could not materialise. Now, fresh tenders will be floated,” said Dachalwal.

Jaskirat Singh, operation manager of the city bus service, said that 15 buses continue to ply on two routes as earlier. “The bus service cannot be stopped as a court case is going on,” he maintained. Further, he added that the MC had directed them to either purchase 83 buses for Rs 5.42 crore or return them in the same condition they received these in. After this, the firm knocked the doors of the court and the case was still pending.

“According to one of the conditions, the buses had to cover 5 lakh km, but still 70,000 km were pending due to which the present fleet of 15 buses would continue to ply on the roads. We have received no letter from the MC to surrender the buses as yet,” he said.

Om Kumar, who works in a factory at Kohara, was relieved to see city buses on the roads. “Yesterday was Mahashivratri holiday and today I was worried about reaching the workplace as I had learnt that the city bus service will discontinue. Much to my surprise, I found them parked at the same place as usual and the contractor told me that the bus service would continue for a few more days,” he said.

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 were later handed over to a private firm for its operation. The firm was given 83 buses for operations in 2015 while the remaining 37 had got defunct by that time and were still lying at the depot located on Tajpur Road.

The city bus contract started on January 25, 2015 and came to an end on January 25, 2024. After this, the private firm started returning the buses and 15 were still operational because according to one of the conditions of the agreement it was required that the buses would have cover 5 lakh km before being returned, which led to delay in the returning of this last batch. The deadline for returning this last batch was fixed for February 25, 2025.