PRTC may seek tourist permit to resume service to IGI airport
PATIALA : The Pepsu Roadways Transport Corporation (PRTC) has stopped its direct bus service from major cities of Punjab to the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport, three days after the Delhi government banned them plying beyond the inter-state bus terminuses (ISBTs).
The government is exploring the option of procuring tourist permit to resume the service, state transport officials said.
In July this year, the PRTC started eight luxury air-conditioned buses from Patiala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Hoshiarpur to outside departure Terminal 3 of the Delhi airport.
“Recently, Delhi government’s transport department challaned a few government-run buses as they were operating on stage carriage permits, which are not allowed to go further ISBT after which bus service to the IGI airport was stopped,” said a transport official pleading anonymity.
State transport commissioner Dilraj Singh Sandhawalia (STC) said admitted that all the buses were on stage carrier permits, which could pick passengers from the ISBT only.
“We are working on to resolve the issue. We have two options, first we will examine the Delhi transport policy and a 1997 apex court judgment which Delhi transport authorities had cited to justify their action, and second, we will run buses on tourist permits to Delhi airport,” he said.
The state-run buses were popular among NRIs for its low fare. The PRTC buses were charging ₹787 per passenger from Patiala and ₹880 from Ludhiana up to Delhi airport, while private players charge anywhere between ₹1,500 to ₹4,000.
“The bus service was an instant hit as there was average occupancy of 80 per cent on all the routes. In the last one month, around 3,000 passengers travelled in our eight buses and generated a monthly revenue of over ₹30 lakh,” said PRTC managing director Manjit Singh Narang.
Sources said the move to ban Punjab buses to the IGI airport came under pressure from a political family from the state that has interest in private passenger transport. The source said government bus service with low fare to IGI airport was hitting the business of private buses. The company owned by the said family had suffered losses to the tune of ₹1 crore due to the governmentrun buses. The capital’s transport department is under the Delhi government but the CM cannot transfer state transport commissioner as these powers are vested with the lieutenant governor.