Punjab govt to add 300 new buses to existing fleet

Mohali, June 28 (UNI) The Punjab Government would add 300 more new buses in the existing fleet of 1482 buses of PUNBUS, Punjab Roadways and PRTC in the next three months.

An equal number of new buses would also be added to the Kilo Meter scheme, Transport Minister Mohan Lal stated here today.

He assured that the Transport Department would implement the insurance scheme for the passengers traveling in the state owned buses shortly.

The Minister was here to attend a function in which job letters were handed over to the dependents of departmental employees who died in harness.

Claiming to be a first ever function of its kind he said that appointment letters had been given to 90 beneficiaries of deceased employees on compassionate grounds. While 75 dependents were appointed as conductors, 15 were appointed as junior technicians.

The Minister further said that 14 drivers have already been appointed on compassionate basis and 80 more such cases were lying pending with the department which would be decided at the earliest.

He said that about 75 fresh applications in this regard had also been received by the department recently.

Mr Mohan Lal said that keeping in view the road accidents and loss of lives, it had been decided to launch an insurance scheme for the passengers traveling in the state owned buses.

He said that the Transport Department had earned profit a of Rs 1.91 crore under Km Scheme during the last financial year.

Similarly PUNBUS had also earned a profit to the tune of Rs 27.52 crore during the last fiscal.

He further said that three modern bus stands on BOT (Build-operate-Transfer) basis had been planned at Jalandhar and Ludhiana. The new bus stand at Amritsar had already been made functional. The bus stands at Jalandhar and Ludhiana would be completed in the month of July and September respectively.

Besides, eight bus stands had been given on Operation and Maintenance (O&M) basis. He further added that Transport Department had recently introduced electronic ticketing machines in Chandigarh and Ludhiana in order to plug the pilferage of revenue. These machines would also be used in the buses.

UNI