Hiring pvt buses will make Roadways bankrupt: Dalal

The profitable routes were shut down thus increasing the gap in the revenue receipts and expenditure of the department.

KARAN SINGH DALAL,

Congress MLA from Palwal

CHANDIGARH: Congress MLA from Palwal, Karan Singh Dalal on Tuesday said that Haryana transport department’s move to hire 510 private buses would lead to considerable financial losses.

In a memorandum addressed to the governor, the Congress MLA said the BJP government in Haryana initiated the formulation of the scheme for hiring of buses on kilometre basis in April 2015 and reduced the induction of buses in Haryana roadways.

The profitable routes were shut down thus increasing the gap in the revenue receipts and expenditure of the department, he alleged at a press conference.

“A calculation of profit and loss of kilometre scheme for which the state government has made agreements with private operators reveal that the roadways would annually incur a loss of ₹147 crore/km. The roadways will thus become bankrupt,’’ the Congress legislator said.

The BJP government did not bother to compare the rates of Punjab and Rajasthan governments who also ply private buses under the hiring scheme at much lower rates, he alleged.

Rubbishing Dalal’s allegations, a spokesperson of the transport department said there was absolute transparency in the tendering process to hire private buses. His comparison of rates with Punjab and Rajasthan is not correct as the provisions of the schemes for hiring private buses by the two states are quite different from Haryana, the spokesperson said.

“Our objective of providing public transport services to citizens is not to make profits. The transport department would incur higher losses by investing in purchase of new buses as compared tohiring private ones,” the spokesperson said.