2 months on, Punbus entry to IGI airport remains disrupted

Avneet Kaur

Jalandhar, February 3

Even after two months of the announcement made by the state Transport Department that the luxury bus services to the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in New Delhi will be resumed shortly, the services remain off track and disrupted by the airport authorities. No bus of Punbus till date is allowed to enter the airport premises or dropping passengers near the airport.

As per Baljit Singh, vice-president, Punjab Roadways Employees Union, due to the lackadaisical approach of the state government in taking up the issue with the airport authorities, the state-owned Punbus are not allowed to enter the airport. He alleged that despite being in power, the government had failed to resume its own transport services while private buses without any hindrance were allowed to take the passengers to the airport.

He said, “The roadways employees have taken up the matter with the General Manager, Roadways, and the Transport Minister a number of times, but to no avail.”

He said: “Other than the previous losses, Punbus at present is facing a loss of around Rs 40-50 lakh per month. Besides with the suspension of the services, passengers had also been reduced.”

Only 12-15 passengers are been taken to the Delhi ISBT Kashmiri Gate in the 43-seater buses. However, in the past, there used to be bookings of over 35 passengers going to the airport, he added.

The GM, Roadways, Parneet Singh, who in the past few weeks had several meetings with the Delhi Airport Transportation Authorities, said: “The airport authorities were adamant on dismissing the luxury Punjab Roadways bus services from Jalandhar to the IGI airport on baseless grounds.”

He said even after having three national tourist permits, the Punbus buses had been restricted from deporting passengers to anywhere near the airport.”

On being asked why only Punbus was not allowed to ferry passengers to the airport, he said, only the state government might answer to this, as the matter is now between the central authorities and the Punjab Government.”