Row over leasing out of Ludhiana bus stand

The decision to lease out major portions of the Ludhiana bus stand to a private contractor from November 1 has sparked a controversy.

While Punjab Transport Minister Laljit Singh Bhullar maintained that the contract was awarded in a fair and transparent manner through an open tender process, private bus operators and the roadways union have opposed the move.

They argue that the government should retain control of the bus stand, instead of handing it over to private hands, citing previous experiences with contractors that led to alleged fleecing of passengers and high-handed behaviour.

Talking to The Tribune, Jaswinder Singh Grewal, general secretary of the Small Scale Bus Operators Welfare Association, alleged that the new contract had been awarded to relatives of a previously “blacklisted” contractor.

“Now, the mafia will run the bus stand and exploit passengers, bus operators, drivers and workers by setting their own rules. When the bus stand was under the department’s control, there was accountability, but under a contractor, no one will listen to their issues. He will impose his own terms,” he said.

Shamsher Singh, state general secretary of the Punjab Roadways, PUNBUS, and PRTC Contract Workers’ Union, said even minor operations would now come under the contractor’s control.

“The adda fees, washroom charges and other small levies will be decided by the contractor. Departmental interference in day-to-day affairs will be minimal. When everything was running smoothly, what was the need to hand over the operations to a private party?” he questioned.

At the same time, a release by the Transport Minister termed all allegations as baseless.

He said the policy was being followed since the time of previous governments and on the same lines, other bus stands of the state had also been leased.

The minister clarified and appealed for refraining from unfounded news and misleading propaganda, saying that the construction work of the Ludhiana bus stand was done by Wellsampan Company in 2006 on BOT (Bundle Operate and Transfer) model. The company operated the bus stand on a BOT basis till 2016. Afterwards, the bus stand was again given to the LRY Company in 2018 on the MOT (maintenance operate and transfer) basis.

He said due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the concession fee due by the LRY Company was not deposited with the department, due to which the agreement of the company was suspended by the department and the maintenance of the bus stand was being done by Punbus at its own level from December 2021.

He said the collection of the fee of the bus stand was also done by the department at its own level. To collect the fee, 15 employees (conductors-sub-inspectors) were deployed by the depot at different points of the bus stand. The fee was collected daily by the employees and expenses of salary, stationery, etc, of these employees were also borne by the department itself.

Bhullar said as per the orders of the head office, an online e-auction was conducted by the depot eight times for paying the bus stand fee on contract.

Accordingly, an e-auction was conducted on August 1. A total of four bidders participated in the online e-auction.

The contract for the adda fee has been made with the company for a period of six months or till the time of taking up the overall bus stand contract. The entire process of advance e-auction has been done by the MSTC company as per government instructions. After the work of the adda fee collection was outsourced, the conductor and sub-inspector staff of the depot, who were deployed on adda fee collection, had been redeployed to their earlier duties.