Auto-rickshaws line up on the Rajpura road leading to congestion on Thursday. TRIBUNE PHOTO: RAJESH SACHAR
Patiala, May 18
A day after Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann inaugurated the city’s new bus stand, traffic chaos was witnessed outside its premises for hours.
Three-wheelers that usually ply on the road adjoining the old bus stand and cause a gridlock there were seen cluttered outside the new bus stand. As such, the traffic flow on the road was severely affected for most of the day.
As per the district administration, the Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) has started running the inter-city and inter-state buses from the new bus stand. Over 1,000 buses entered and exited the bus stand through the day, an official of the district administration said. This huge surge led to a complete breakdown of traffic management outside the bus stand.
On the other hand, the old bus stand wore a deserted look as no buses reached there. People running shops on the premises of the old bus stand met PRTC officials and demanded that buses entering the city should pass through the old bus stand as well.
PRTC chairman Ranjodh Singh Hadana said he would visit the new bus stand tomorrow and look to sort out the problems. “We are making all necessary provisions for the benefit of the residents and commuters. In view of the problems being faced by people to commute to the new bus stand, we ran 10 mini-buses. Tomorrow we will increase the number of the local buses to 25. We are hoping that the state will soon be able to provide electric buses for local commuting. In case it is delayed, we will make provisions for buses on our own and run them locally,” he said.
He said the PRTC has decided to run the local buses on a regular basis. “We have identified over 15 points in the city that the buses will touch for the benefit of the commuters,” he said.
He added that the old bus stand will remain non-functional for now. “We will later work out the modalities to make it functional as per needs,” he said.
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