Haryana asks neighbouring states to allow interstate movement of roadways buses
In its ‘Unlock 4’ guidelines, the Union ministry of home affairs had said that there will be no restriction on interstate and intrastate movement of persons and goods, and no separate permission/approval/e-permit will be required for such movement.
Haryana government on Friday shot off letters to the neighbouring states, seeking nod to start interstate bus operations and politely reminding about the Centre’s explicit guidelines to not stop interstate movement of persons and goods.
Government sources say the two-page letters written in Hindi were dispatched on Friday after the neighbouring governments — barring UT Chandigarh — didn’t respond to a similar request sent via e-mail on Monday.
However, Chandigarh administration referring to the August 28 guidelines of the Centre informed Haryana on Friday that it “has decided to resume” interstate bus service of Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) buses and other state transport undertakings from September 16.
In its ‘Unlock 4’ guidelines, the Union ministry of home affairs had said that there will be no restriction on interstate and intrastate movement of persons and goods, and no separate permission/approval/e-permit will be required for such movement.
According to transport minister Mool Chand Sharma, the letters were sent to Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Uttarakhand governments.
“Please let Haryana Roadways buses enter your states as per the directions of the Union government and as per the agreements,” Sharma said, hoping to receive permission to resume interstate bus operations.
He said it was for the neighbouring states to decide if they wanted to ply their buses on interstate routes or not. “But at least allow our roadways buses to resume operations in your states as per the agreements. And we have already given consent to all the states that they can run their buses in Haryana,” the minister said, pointing out that large number of the roadways buses used to go to Himachal before the lockdown.
Haryana Roadways has already been running about 53 buses in Uttar Pradesh and about 100 in Rajasthan regularly.
“The interstate operations could not be started till date due to lack of permission by the neighbouring states, including Delhi,” the transport department said in an internal note circulated on Friday.
LOSSES MOUNTING
The bus operations in Haryana were stopped on March 21 in view of ‘Janata Curfew’ and subsequent nationwide lockdown.
Haryana Roadways started driving out of the lockdown on May 15 by initially running 29 buses on intrastate routes while adhering to social distancing norms.
As per the official data, in four months (April to July), the average kilometre per day per bus slipped to 34 against 282 during the corresponding period last year. During this period the ‘receipt per km was Rs 15 against near Rs 27 last year.
Officials said the roadways earned Rs 22 crore in four months (April to July), while during the same months last year, the total traffic receipt was Rs 348 crore.
“Ghaata hi ghaata ho raha hai...,” the transport minister said.
However, as per the data of the roadways, there had been an encouraging rise in revenue and the number of passengers travelling within the state in its buses last month.
In August, the total receipt from the sale of tickets was Rs 29 crore and the total number of passengers travelled in the roadways buses rose to 49 lakh as the buses covered over one crore kilometres in a month. The receipts per km grew to Rs 25.
“As per the report received from the depots, 1,596 buses were being operated on September 3,” said an official.
In the past three days, 53 roadways buses travelled to UP and 104 between Rajasthan and Haryana. About six lakh passengers opted for the roadways buses on interstate as well as intrastate routes, generating Rs 3.34 crore in three days.