Staterun buses off road, losses pegged at ₹38 lakh

JALANDHAR: State-run Punjab Roadways and Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) suffered a loss of ₹38 lakh in two days even as the bus services remained suspended on interstate routes on Saturday following violence in Punjab and Haryana a day after the verdict against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

Official figures reveal that the Punjab Roadways Jalandhar depot-1 and depot-2 suffered a loss of over ₹15 lakh as commuters avoided travelling on Saturday.

Of the sanctioned fleet of 210 roadways buses in Jalandhar, around 150 were suspended on Saturday.

The roadways had also kept its all buses off road on Friday evening after a violent protest in Punjab, Delhi and Haryana. It suffered a loss of ₹5 lakh on Friday.

“We have around 100 buses in our fleet but over 80% of buses kept off road on Saturday as there were hardly any passengers. The depot-2 suffered a loss of ₹6 lakh on Saturday,” Punjab Roadways general manager, Depot-2, Balwinder Singh said.

Jalandhar Roadways depot-1 general manager Parneet Singh Minhas said they suffered the loss of about ₹7 lakh since Friday as the buses to Haryana, Delhi, Hisar, Shimla and some other long routes remained suspended due to security reasons.

Roadways’ Hoshiarpur GM HS Minhas said they suffered a loss of ₹5 lakh on Saturday and ₹2 lakh on Friday. The SBS Nagar depot of the roadways suspended the bus service on Saturday and suffered the loss of ₹6 lakh. In Kapurthala, the PRTC suspended its bus service to Haryana, HP, Chandigarh and Delhi.