The new route plans and permits for city buses were discussed at a meeting of the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) which was organised at the camp office of the Garhwal Commissioner on Wednesday. The transport department had recently notified the Premnagar-Selaqui route for city buses as this route is not covered by the city bus service. The city buses in the city are at present plying on the Premnagar-Suddhowala route only.
The State capital at present has seven routes for city buses, these are, Dehradun-Clement town route, Dehradun-Mussoorie route, Dehradum-Saharanpur route, Dehradun-Premnagar route, Dehradun-Rajpur route, Dehradun-Sahastradhara route and Dehradun-Doiwala route. The RTA meeting on Wednesday discussed the route plans, new additions and disposed off many issues.
The Dehradun City bus association submitted its objections for the notification of new routes by the RTA. The association claimed that constitution of new routes in Dehradun is outside the purview of the RTA. The president of the city bus association Vijay Vardhan Dandariyal said that since the urban population of Dehradun is more than 5 lakh, the new routes can be formed by a notification of State Government after necessary clearance from the Central Government.
The association submitted documentary evidences for its undertaking. The city bus association also submitted its objection to the RTA chairperson that it was not provided the copy of agenda of the meeting. The association alleged that the transport department is planning to grant the stage carriage permit to the vehicles like Vikrams, Tata magic and Maximo. The association claimed that the entire episode reeks of the corruption in the department.
In its objection the Doon Auto-rickshaw union alleged that the transport department has invited dealers of the auto agencies and not the real owners of the auto-rickshaws in the RTA meeting. The meeting was chaired by Garhwal Commissioner CS Napalchiyal and attended by the Regional Transport Officer (RTO), Dehradun and representatives of many transport associations. The meeting discussed the issues on agenda and reserved it decision.