Upbeat over increase in revenue by 10 per cent in the past eight months, Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) has decided to construct 12 new bus stands, including those at tourist hot spots like Shimla, Kullu and Manali.
A decision in this regard was taken in a meeting of Board of Directors of the HRTC in which it was decided that new Bus stands should be constructed on PPP or BOT mode for which expression of interest will soon be invited by the department. The new bus stands will come at Parwanoo, Dhalli (Shimla), lakkar Bazaar (Shimla), Manali, Baddi, Chamba, Kullu, Nurpur, Manikaran, Palampur and Nahan. Builders of two bus stands of Hamirpur and Una have been given last chance to start the work or fresh expression of interest will be invited.
“This was one of the major decisions of the board to construct 12 new bus stands and HRTC has recorded 10 per cent increase in revenue in past nine months while KMPl of buses has increased by eight points,” said Transport Minister GS Balli. He said that Transport department was in advance stage of talks with the dealers to supply 500 new buses out of the 1,000 buses sanctioned by the State Government for HRTC.
“We are negotiating with the dealers and hopefully we will get some new buses ahead of Diwali festival,” said the Transport Minister. Balli added several bus stands would be renovated and repaired for which Rs 10 crore has been sanctioned. In order to boost e-ticketing facility, Transport Minister announced that five per cent discount would be given on each tickets booked advance for HRTC buses.
The Minister said that tour operators who order group booking in luxury buses like Volvo, would also be given five per cent incentive.
“We are under process of reviewing inter-state bus routes which are loss making and four committees have been formed under two directors of the board to review the routes and submit a report to the managing director so that re-routing and re-timing could be done,” added Balli. Balli said that a proposal had been sent to Union Government specifying 12 clusters where buses under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) could be run. “A request for 1000 buses has been made to union government,” he said.