Punjab government to cancel permits of 9,251 buses

CHANDIGARH: As many as 9,251 buses owned by around 100 companies are all set to be taken off the roads in Punjab according to Captain Amarinder Singh government's new transport policy. Permits for these buses were given during the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP rule between 2007 and 2017. The policy has not even spared companies of former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal's Orbit Aviation and Dabwali Transport.

The policy will be announced in the coming week.

Sources in the government said that the private permits have been cancelled because the operators were plying their buses 15 to 24 km beyond the approved schemes. The list includes 1,840 illegal extensions and renewals. Only 684 permits set to be cancelled are those of state-owned buses.


The note also says that some operators illegally got licence to operate air-conditioned buses on lucrative routes from district headquarters to Chandigarh and to important cities like Delhi, Gurgaon and Jaipur.

According to the transport department documents, the state transport undertakings (STUs) - Punjab Roadways Transport Corporation (PRTC), PUNBUS and Punjab Roadways - have been making losses and could not compete with private operators who had monopolised some routes.

The department's decision is largely a fallout of a PIL admitted in Punjab and Haryana high court which rapped the state in December 2016 for not framing new policies and cancelling old licences in keeping with its 2012 order. The high court in December 2012 had quashed the Punjab Mini Bus Service Scheme, 2010, and declared the issuance of such bus permits and their renewal illegal.