Tuesday, 18 October 2022 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Considering the rise in the number of passengers due to Deepawali, the Uttarakhand Transport Corporation (UTC) will deploy additional buses on hill routes in the State and to other States from Dehradun, Haridwar ISBT, Rishikesh and Roorkee bus depots. The corporation has already sent several buses to workshops for repairing and maintenance work to operate them smoothly in case of a sudden rush in the number of passengers.
The general manager (operations) of UTC Deepak Jain said that the corporation has been making all the preparations to tackle the Deepawali rush of the passengers travelling within the State or the other States. About 500 Roadways buses operate daily from ISBT Dehradun to other districts and States and the UTC would possibly deploy about 150-200 buses for additional operation of buses on Dehradun-Delhi route since it is the busiest route during festivals. Jain said that the Roadways has not fixed any number about how many buses will be deployed on the Deepawali festival but all necessary arrangements have been made to ensure passengers travelling before and after Deepawali get buses on time. Besides the operation of additional buses, the GM said that the UTC will also increase the number of trips of the buses. The drivers and conductors working during Deepawali would also be given incentives by the corporation, added Jain.
Meanwhile, the passengers for the five electric buses on the Dehradun-Delhi route which were recently launched by UTC on Saturday have witnessed only a handful of passengers in the past three days. The corporation even cancelled the four buses due to insufficient passengers on Sunday. The GM said that many people are still not aware of the operation of these new e-buses due to which, many are not initiating to travel through them but with time, more and more passengers will book the tickets of the e-buses. The UTC is presently running a three-month pilot project to run electric buses on the Dehradun-Delhi route after the Delhi government’s announcement to only allow the operation of BS VI vehicles or electric buses to tackle the air pollution issue. The corporation will go ahead with the plan to run more such buses besides providing places for their charging points among other facilities if the trial succeeds during the stipulated time.
