Though the roadways offered free transport facility to the women on the occasion of the Raksha Bandhan on Wednesday, passengers including the occasional as well as the long distant travellers experienced a harrowing time following low presence of the buses on roads.
Despite increased fleet of buses, as the officials concerned of the roadways claimed, people could be seen stranded at the bus stations waiting for buses for their destination. Increased number of passengers on account of the Raksha Bandhan festival could be described one of the major reasons causing shortfall of buses.
“We waited for the bus for Sitarganj for over two and half an hour. Though a Tanakpur bound bus has left via Chorgalia, we could not board it as it was overcrowded,” said Sunita Kumari, a resident of Haldwani. Similarly, Rajesh Nath, who had to go to Almora from Haldwani, could not get a bus for over two hours. I am here for the past two hours along with my family. But there is no bus to Almora, Nath added.
However, the roadways officials maintained that although maximum staff remain off duty due to holiday on Wednesday, yet adequate arrangements have been made to cater to the passengers. “Apart from our routine buses, we have deployed additional buses on some busy roads like the Haldwani- Nainital Road and the Haldwani- Ramnagar Road,” RS Kapri, in-charge of the Haldwani roadways station, told The Pioneer.
“Besides, for the first time after the natural disaster occurred in mid-June, we also resumed our bus service to Pithoragarh via Almora Danya from Wednesday,” he added. At the same time, there is no such crisis of buses on other important routes like the Haldwani-Rudrapur Road as the Delhi bound buses also follow the same Haldwani-Rudarapur Road to reach their destinations, maintained the official concerned of the Haldwani roadways bus station.