The Centre on Monday formed an Empowered Group of State Transport Ministers to advise on policy issues to make the country’s transport sector modern, efficient and transparent. The Empowered Group will be headed by Rajasthan Transport Minister Yunus Khan.
Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said that various issues related to road transport will become important day by day and thus such a body will empower the functioning of transport mechanism in the country.
The Minister also said that several state road transport corporations are incurring huge losses and the problem has to be addressed by developing an integrated approach for transport sector in the country.
“The centre does not want to encroach upon the rights of the states; it rather wants that the revenues of the states should increase,” said Gadkari addressing transport minister of States at a conference in the national Capital.
Road Ministry also asked the state transport undertakings to convert their 17 lakh buses to Euro VI compliant or bio-fuel friendly vehicles as part of implementing stricter emission norms from April 1, 2020, a move aimed at curbing high vehicular pollution.
“You have to convert your buses to Euro VI norms. There are 17 lakh buses operated by State Transport Corporations. These have to be upgraded through refurbishing or other means so that they become Euro VI or bio-fuel compliant. These can also be converted to electric buses,” Gadkari told the ministers.
The statement assume significance in the wake of India deciding to leapfrog directly from Euro IV emission norms for petrol and diesel to Euro VI standards, and the oil PSUs will invest `28,750 crore for the transition.
Gadkari also suggested State Transport Corporations to slash the ticket prices by 50 per cent to swing into profit saying this could easily be done after change in fuel which is economical. He said most of state road transport corporations buses were running into losses which amounted to `10,000 crore.
He also announced the plans to set up bus ports across the country on the line of airports citing example of such bus ports in Gujarat. “Government is ready to provide viability subsidy. There is a need to set up bus ports on the pattern of airports on the public-private-partnership (PPP) mode,” he said.
Gadkari also said the government also plans to take the total length of the National Highways to 2 lakh km in three months. He also said the pace of land acquisition for highway projects has jumped manifold after enhanced compensation with the new law proving a boon in disguise.