No parking pact, Punjab government buses pick, drop passengers away from IGI Airport's T3

Tribune News Service

Karam Prakash

Patiala, June 20

Passengers travelling in luxury buses of the state transport undertakings (STUs) to the Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) are a harried lot as they are being picked and dropped hundreds of meters away from Terminal 3 (T3), forcing them to walk along with their luggage.

Reason: Punjab’s STUs didn’t sign the parking agreement and therefore, each bus is asked to pay a hefty amount to drop passengers at T3. To avoid this payment, government buses are picking and dropping the passengers hundreds of meters away from the terminal, say sources.

Punjab transport officials, however, claimed there was a free shuttle bus service between the Passenger Terminal Complex (PTC), where the government buses are dropping the travellers, and T3.

Notably, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, in the presence of his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann, had flagged off the luxury bus service amid much fanfarein Jalandhar on June 15.

Meanwhile, an official of the Delhi Airport Parking Services said, “In the absence of any agreement, the STU buses are not allowed to pick up and drop passengers at T3. Once the agreement is signed, only nominal charges will be taken from the buses.”

When contacted, Poonamdeep Kaur, Managing Director, Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC), said, “The issue will be resolved soon. We are going to sign a parking contract with the airports authority.”

She further said : “Initially, the response to the luxury bus service was not up to the mark. However, it is gradually getting better, given the low fare as compared to private bus service.”

“Moreover, we got a good response from the Ludhiana depot where passenger occupancy has been recorded around 60%,” Poonamdeep added.

PRTC OCCUPANCY LESS THAN 60%

• The PRTC is getting a poor response from passengers as even six days after the start of buses to the Delhi airport, the occupancy hasn’t even crossed 60%
• On weekdays, the occupancy is much lower. Also, during the first few days after the service resumption, only 7-10 tickets of the total 43 seats were booked
• Currently, the PRTC is running 6 buses from Patiala, Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana. It claimed that occupancy would increase in coming days

ISSUE WILL BE RESOLVED SOON

We are going to sign a parking contract with the airports authority. The issue will be resolved soon. Also, the response to bus service is gradually getting better, given the low fare than private ones. — Poonamdeep Kaur, MD, PRTC

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