After its plans to purchase new buses ended in disappointment in the recent past, the UT Administration on Monday put forth the troublesome procedure of procuring new buses as a major challenge, at a meeting with National Transport Development Policy Committee (NTDPC).
Raising the issue, the UT senior officials in a meeting with NTDPC officials brought forth the major problems in purchasing new buses for the Union Territory of Chandigarh. Enlisting the details, the UT officials stated that manufacturers are not ready to supply buses in reasonable time frame, they are not conforming to the standard specifications, they are either not coming forward with long term AMC or rates quoted are quite high and even with high rates, manufacturers are not ready to commit bus availability of 90 per cent.
Considering the bitter past experiences, the UT Administration also suggested a number of measures to deal with the issue. The UT officials suggested disincentives for manufacturers for not supplying the buses to towns with smaller bus requirement, introduction of a conditions like before supplying buses to bigger cities manufacturers have to supply particular number of buses to smaller city, option for standard deductions in case of certain manufacturers not able to comply with the specs, rate contract for AMC and as an alternative to AMC, rate contract for providing supervisory manpower by the manufacturer for maintenance.
Failing to elicit response for the third time from companies to purchase buses for the city, the UT Administration had in the past also urged the Union Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) to issues instructions to the private companies.
The disagreement on relaxation in terms of annual maintenance contract and others clauses led to delay in the whole process of purchasing of new buses for the union territory of Chandigarh. During the meeting with NTDPC, the UT Administration also suggested need of high speed connectivity to Amritsar and national capital New Delhi from Chandigarh.
A presentation was also given by UT Administration officials during the meeting held at UT guest house. The meeting was attended by BN Puri, Kl Thapar, DP Gupta and other members from the NTDPC, Planning Commission and the officials of neighbouring State Governments of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab.
The NTDPC was constituted in the year 2010 to develop a long term national transport policy (with a 2030 vision) that ensure growth and efficiency in the economy and also pay attention to competitive pricing and coordination between alternative modes of transport.