Inter-state passengers to brace for hard journeys

Thousands of passengers travelling everyday from Chandigarh to neighbouring states are likely to be inconvenienced as UT administration is learnt to have asked Chandigarh Transport Undertaking to draft a proposal to divert a significant chunk of its fleet from crucial inter-state routes to intra-city routes.

Thousands of passengers travelling everyday from Chandigarh to neighbouring states are likely to be inconvenienced as UT administration is learnt to have asked Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) to draft a proposal to divert a significant chunk of its fleet from crucial inter-state routes to intra-city routes.

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Apart from inconveniencing commuters, the move, if implemented, would also cause a revenue loss of Rs 3.86 lakh daily or around Rs 1.2 crore per month to the CTU.

Highly placed sources in Chandigarh administration confirmed that acting on the direction, the CTU had prepared an initial draft to propose curtailment of services on 20 major inter-state routes by diverting around 60 CTU buses.

Pertinently, as of now, around 130 CTU busses are plied on inter-state routes, considered high revenue generating routes.

Although the administration has to take a final call on the issue, sources revealed that the CTU draft proposed to curtail services on crucial routes like Chandigarh to Delhi, Katra, Jawalaji, Jammu, Haridwar, Jaipur, Rohtak and Baijnath.

Confirming that the administration was working on such a proposal to strengthen local transport network, KK Sharma, adviser to UT administrator, said, "Strengthening local public transport is the focus of our urban transport policy and modalities will be worked out in accordance with the policy. However, the exact number of buses that would be diverted to local routes is yet to be decided."