Uttarakhand: Roadways could not buy new buses, traveling in old sour buses is risky

Roadways operates buses from Doon to Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Uttar Pradesh, in which thousands of passengers travel. When the team inspected the roadways buses, many deficiencies were found. First aid boxes used for the safety of passengers were not present. Even if kits were found, medicines were not found in them. In some buses, when the team asked the conductor about the kit, he cited that the driver had it and said that he keeps it with him. Whereas, when asked by the driver, he said that there was no first aid box.

So many buses in the roadways fleet

• Total buses around-1200
• Ordinary buses -950
• AC buses-55
• Volvo Buses (Contract)-50
• CNG buses (contracted)-13

Roadways forgot panic button

Panic buttons were once made mandatory in all public transport including roadways buses. But, when Dainik Jagran I Next team did a reality check of the roadways buses, panic button was not found in these buses. The buses which had panic buttons were also found broken.

More than 500 buses are junk

New buses have not been purchased for the roadways fleet for the last 5 years. Roadways had purchased 484 buses in August 2016, after which 300 buses were purchased in October 2019, of which 150 buses were purchased for mountain routes and 150 buses were purchased for plain routes. After this the roadways did not purchase buses. Whereas, according to experts, 484 buses purchased from roadways in 2016 have completed 8 years. Their term has ended. This is the reason why roadways are facing many problems like brake failure, sometimes tire problem when these buses ply on the route.

BS-6 plan failed

For the last several years, Roadways has been planning to purchase CNG, Electric and BS-6 buses. But, despite several requests for tender, the company is not submitting the tender. Due to which the roadways are not able to purchase new buses, due to which the number of buses in the roadways fleet is decreasing, the benefit of which is being taken by private bus operators.

Not even spare parts

Due to lack of tires and spare parts on the roadways, more than two dozen buses are standing in workshops. These buses being old are breaking down on the routes. In the last one week itself, five buses of the mountain depot had broken down on different routes. For which orders have been placed for brake drum, gear lever, tyre, clutch plate, steering rod, spring and other parts. But, due to not being received despite repeated demands, these buses are standing in the workshop.

Soon 100 new buses are to be included in the roadways fleet. It is expected that it will be included in the roadways by the last week of May. Along with this, better buses are being operated regularly. So that one does not have to face any problem in operating the buses.
Deepak Jain, GM, Roadways