Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann aims to break monopoly of private bus operators; announces to ply buses to Delhi airport from June 15

Tribune News Service

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, June 10

In a major step to break the monopoly of private bus operators, including the companies owned by a prominent political family, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday announced that the state government would start its buses from different locations to the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi from June 15. 

Passengers can now book their tickets online for the best bus for their onward flight journey.

For the past four years, the buses from Punjab to the International Airport were being plied only by private operators, mostly by companies owned by a political family in the state. The Aam Aadmi Party had promised to break this monopoly in the run-up to the Punjab Assembly election.

Announcing the starting of Volvo buses from Punjab to the IGI Airport and from the IGI Airport to different cities of the state, the CM announced that the tariff to be charged by the PRTC and PEPSU buses would be less than half of what the private operators are charging. “The tariff will be less than half, and the facilities to commuters will be more. We are committed to breaking all mafias that flourished in the state before the AAP government was formed. Recently, we even brought an excise policy that will lead to the state earning a 40 per cent additional revenue over the last year,” he said.

Sources say the buses will ply between the IGI airport and cities of Amritsar, Pathankot, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Patiala. It is learnt that the fare to be charged will be in the range of Rs 800-Rs 1,400, as compared to the Rs 1,600-Rs 2,600 charged by the private operators.

Last year, in the run-up to the state Assembly polls, AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal had announced to end the transport mafia, if voted to power. He had then announced to set up a commission of 10 to 15 members for the transport sector in Punjab comprising representatives of the state's transporter unions. This commission, he had said, would formulate the new transport policy, and not the officers and ministers sitting in AC rooms. The AAP, he had reiterated after joining a dharna by transporters in Zirakpur, would implement the decisions of the commission so that the problems faced by the people involved in the business, including truck operators, could be resolved from time to time.

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