The Haryana Government on Wednesday resumed inter-state public transport services for Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chandigarh after remaining suspended for around six months in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The state Government had earlier shot off letters to the neighbouring states, seeking nod to start interstate bus operations and reminding about the Centre’s explicit guidelines to not stop interstate movement of persons and goods.
Talking to ‘The Pioneer’ over the phone, Haryana Transport Minister Mool Chand Sharma said that the inter-state bus service has been started for Uttar Pradesh, Chandigarh and Rajasthan as the Governments of these States had approved bus movement. On the first day of bus services operations, 297 public buses of Haryana roadways reached destinations in Rajasthan, Chandigarh and Uttar Pradesh. The interstate operations could not be started due to lack of permission by the neighbouring states of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Delhi.
The Transport Minister said, “From our end, we are ready to restart bus operations to States like Uttarakhand, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. But we need their nod to operate the buses. Our government has corresponded with its counterparts in these States and is waiting for their nod to resume bus operations after coronavirus enforced disruption. These neighbouring States are yet to respond to the letter. It is expected that bus services in these states would resume in the next four-five days. We are trying to put things 'back on track in the transport department.”
He further said that 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 the Minister, the State government went ahead with the bus service restoration idea after the new guidelines emerged from the Central government, easing most of the earlier restrictions. Government lifted almost all the restrictions it put in place for inter-state travellers in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic under Unlock 4.0. “Haryana Roadways buses will also go to other states like Punjab, Delhi, Uttrakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir as before after their nods,” Sharma added.
The Transport Minister said, “We have issued instructions to all the roadways depot general managers of the State in this regard. After a gap of about six months, inter-state buses are operating on the roads of Haryana as before. The operation of around 1700 inter-district buses has already been started in the month of May.”
A senior Transport department officer said that the bus operations in Haryana were stopped on March 21 in view of ‘Janata Curfew’ and subsequent nationwide lockdown. State Roadways incurred heavy losses during the ongoing covid-19 pandemic. During complete shutdown, Haryana Roadways had suffered losses amounting to Rs 3 crore per day.
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. He further 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. 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.
According to the officer, the passengers shall board buses from rear doors and deboard from the front ones. The buses have been plying with full- seating capacity. Passengers will have to wear masks and carry sanitizer with them. Downloading Arogya setu Aap will be a must for them. It would be mandatory for drivers and conductors to wear face masks and the drivers cabin will be segregated from the passengers' seat by a transparent fibre or acrylic sheet.
