The fleet of Uttarakhand Roadways is set for an overhaul as 483 new buses would soon start operating on different routes of the State carrier. After dithering for long, the State Government finally gave clearance for purchase of these new buses in month of May this year. The roadways have received 260 new buses from their manufactures Tata motors and Ashok leyland and rest of the lot are expected to roll in soon. These buses are currently undergoing Pre Delivery Inspection (PDI) at central workshop of Uttarakhand roadways located at Transport Nagar. The Deputy General Manager (DGM) Technical, Mukul Pant told The Pioneer that Tata Motors has supplied 220 buses while 40 buses manufactured by Ashok leyland have arrived. He said that the remaining buses are expected arrive soon and after formalities like PDI and registration these buses would be sent to different depots for operation.
From the new lot, the Hill depot would get 60 buses while rural depot would receive 20, Haridwar 30, Kotdwar 25, Roorkee and Srinagar 10 buses each. Similarly Almora, Haldwani, Kathgodam, Ramnagar and Tanakpur depots would receive 30 buses each while Ranikhet and Bhawali would receive 28 buses. Pithoragarh depot would get 45 of these brand new buses while lohaghat depot would receive 25 buses. The share of Rudrapur and Kashipur depots would get 07 buses each.
In one of the biggest purchases by Uttarakhand roadways in recent years a lot of 483 new buses were procured. In the deal, 367 buses were bought from Ashok leyland while 116 were purchased from Tata motors. In the purchase 250 buses are of narrow wheel base (166 inches), which would be used for the mountainous routes. In the deal 117 buses would be of 205 wheel base and 116 buses would have 210 wheel bases. These buses with broader wheel bases would be operated on plain routes.
The purchases of these buses generated controversy also as suspicions were raised on these buses are conforming to Euro IV emission norms as against prevalent Euro V norms. The top officials of roadways contend that these buses were purchased as buses with new emission norms were not available in quantity required. Further the buses with Euro IV norms are cheaper than the higher version.