Uttarakhand Roadways to add 600 new buses to its fleet

The Uttarakhand Roadways’ bad days could be over soon as the Government is mulling to foot the bills for buying about 600 new buses to include in the fleet. The proposal was considered in a meeting chaired by State Finance Minister Indira Hridayesh and attended by Transport Minister Surendra Rakesh, Transport Commissioner Umakant Panwar and other senior officials on Tuesday. 

At present, most of the buses in the Uttarakhand Roadways fleet are old and it is unsafe to operate them on hilly roads. The Roadways has been dragging with the old buses as it has no money to buy new buses. But now the Government wants to foot the bill to buy new buses.

The Uttarakhand Roadways has been running in losses. In 2011-12, it earned `264.74 crore and spent about `290 crore on diesel, staff salaries and paying interest. There are 1,127 buses with Uttarakhand Roadways at present. Of these, 473 are being operated in hilly areas while 654 are being operated in the plain

The discussion revolved around improving the condition of the State Roadways, making commuting on hilly roads safe and providing good services to people. The Finance Minister instructed the officials to prepare a plan to improve the condition of Roadways. The Roadways has been incurring losses at certain hilly routes.

Transport Minister Surendra Rakesh said that the Roadways should operate on these roads with the aim of providing essential services to the commuters and not for making profit. He said that the Roadways could incur losses of about `25 crore per year by operating on these routes.

The Poineer