HRTC resumes bus service to Rajasthan

Our Correspondent

Nurpur, February 20

The Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) today resumed the Pathankot-Gharsana bus service, giving relief to thousands of dam oustees who had no direct bus or rail facility to visit Rajasthan to see their allotted land there. The dam oustees of Nurpur, Fatehpur, Jawali and Dehra subdivisions have been demanding the resumption of the bus service.

The HRTC had suspended this route during the lockdown in March last year. The dam oustees had been awaiting the resumption of bus service on this route ever since the HRTC started plying buses on other routes in a phased manner. Their children, who had taken admission to various educational institutions of Rajasthan, had returned to their native places in Kangra district due to the lockdown but were unable to go back.

HRTC Dharamsala Divisional Manager Raj Kumar Jaryal, who issued the order yesterday, said the bus would leave at 2 pm from Pathankot everyday and after halting for one hour at Jassur (Nurpur), it would leave for Gharsana in Rajasthan at 4.15 pm. “The bus will reach its destination the next day at 7 am via Ganganagar, Rai Singh Nagar and Anoopgarh that are visited by a large number of dam oustees from lower Kangra areas to cultivate and harvest their fields. From Gharsana, the bus will start its return journey at 8.30 pm and reach Jassur the next day at 9 am,” he said.

Hans Raj Chowdhary and Hukum Guleri, president and general secretary of the Pong Dam Oustees’ Samiti, welcomed the decision of the HRTC and also thanked Transport Minister Vikram Thakur. The HRTC also resumed the Amritsar-Harsipattan night bus service today.