Yogi launches saffron buses for rural routes
CM announces ‘gaurav paths’ for martyrs’ villages
LUCKNOW : Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday announced his government will build ‘gaurav paths’ for martyrs’ villages, connecting them to a regular bus service.
These ‘gaurav paths’ will be rural link roads.
The chief minister also said the government will erect gates at the entry of the martyrs’ villages and install statues of those who laid down their lives defending the country.
He made this announcement while launching the new ‘Sankap Bus Service’ here. He flagged off 50 saffron buses of the UP State Road Corporation’s (UPSRTC) at his 5, Kalidas Marg residence in the morning.
These buses will ply on rural routes in Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Allahabad, Bareilly and Moradabad. The new service will cater to unserved villages as part of the government’s vision to connect all the 40,000 villages of the state to bus service in the next four years.
Sources said the Sankalp bus service was launched at very short notice without prior preparation. “We got a call from the CM office on Tuesday noon asking us to be ready for the launch,” an official disclosed
The chief minister said the government was trying to provide safe and comfortable transport service to people in the state. He said the UPSRTC provided a free ride to women on Raksha Bandhan for the first time this year with 11 lakh women availing themselves of the service.
The CM also stressed the need for the UPSRTC to look for additional sources of income to provide better transport services to people. Minister of state for transport (independent charge) Swatantra Dev Singh said the UPSRTC had identified 38,254 unserved villages which will be connected to the regular rural bus service.
“We aim to connect 9,563 villages to the Sankalp service every year, covering all the villages within next four years,” he said. The UPSRTC has already connected 5,000 villages from its existing rural bus fleet.
The corporation’s managing director P Guruprasad said the UPSRTC had applied for permits to operate buses on the new rural roads which have a total length of 11,000 kilometres.
SANKALP VS LOHIYA BUS SERVICE
Anyone travelling in the Sankalp bus service will have to pay the fare as applicable in ordinary buses with no discount at all. This will be in a sharp contrast the subsidised Lohiya rural bus service that charges 25% lower fare.
The Akhilesh Yadav government had launched the subsidised Lohiya rural bus service to connect villages to their district headquarters.
Around 1500 Lohiya buses are already catering to around 16,000 villages.
The then government had given the money to the UPSRTC to buy new buses on the understanding that the corporation will in return provide subsidised service. Sources said the Yogi Aditanath government too wanted its saffron Sankalp bus service to be a subsidised one like the Lohiya bus service but the authorities, according to them, failed to reach a consensus on the mode of funding for the new service.
“We have decided to charge normal fare on the buses under the Sankalp service for the time being till the broader issue of funding is sorted out,” a senior official said.
He said private operators might also be invited to ply rural buses under public-private partnership if the government failed to fund the service in one form or the other.