Lockdown leaves Amritsar’s ₹553-crore rapid bus transport project gasping
AMRITSAR The coronavirus-induced lockdown has hit the state’s first bus rapid transit system (BRTS) badly. Not only 93 air-conditioned (AC) buses are gathering dust, the exchequer has also been losing around ₹30 lakh per month.
The ₹553-crore metro bus service project had already been struggling to draw passengers and the pandemic has cast a gloomy shadow on the project’s future.
Around 200 bus drivers have not been paid salaries for the last three months. “The officials say there is no income, so salaries can’t be released. Families of some drivers are on the verge of starvation,” said 50-year-old driver Onkar Singh.
“Even if the buses come on the road after some time, there will be fewer passengers. Tourism of the city is already hit. Domestic and international tourists will not come here for at least one year and the project will suffer for a few years,” he said.
The officials, however, said the drivers are hired through a private company and are paid per km basis. “Since the buses are not plying, and the company has expressed its inability to pay salaries. But, we are talking with the company to sort out the issue,” said BRTS’s chief executive officer (CEO) Inderjit Singh Chawla.
He said, “For now, we see little hope that the service will start anytime soon as the situation in Amritsar is critical. All the buses are air-conditioned and there is no order from the government for running AC buses. We are suffering around ₹30 lakh every month, including the salary and the maintenance.”
The first phase of the project was inaugurated in December 2016 by the then deputy chief minister (CM) Sukhbir Singh Badal during the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (SAD-BJP) government. The project was revamped and re-inaugurated in January 2019 by the then local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu.
The Punjab Bus Metro Society (PBMS), a society under Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB), which runs the project, later announced concession scheme to attract passengers, offering 100% discount for school students, 66% for college students, 50% for senior citizens and people with disabilities, and 20% for general public.
But, despite this, the project failed to attract passengers.
“We need ₹2.5 lakh daily for fuel and as much to meet other costs. We sustain only if there is daily income of ₹5 lakh, which comes out to around 20,000 passengers daily,” said a bus driver.