Buses on 20 Bihar-UP routes soon

PATNA: The Bihar State Road Transport Corporation (BSRTC) will soon start plying buses on twenty Bihar-Uttar Pradesh (UP) routes on public-private partnership (PPP) mode.


“We have floated expression of interest (EOI) to rope in private operators for running the buses. The proposal will be accepted till June 15. The Bihar-UP route has huge transportation demand, but not enough buses to cater to the needs of passengers,” transport department secretary Sanjay Kumar Agarwal said on Saturday.

While 14 buses will run on the Patna-Ara-Ballia route via Buxar, 12 buses will ply on the Patna-Gorakhpur route via Hajipur, Siwan and Deoria. Eight buses will run from Patna to Varanasi via Ara and Buxar and five buses will run on the Gaya-Sarnath route via Varanasi, Aurangabad, and Dehri. Four new buses will ply on the Deoria-Patna route.

Three buses each will run on the Varanasi-Dehri, Alinagar-Dehri and Raxaul-Gorakhpur routes via Motihari. Besides, two buses each will ply on the Bhabua-Varanasi route via Dharauli and Chandauli, Bhabua-Varanasi route via Naubatpur, Buxar-Ujiar Ghat and Raxaul-Gorakhpur routes via Piprakothi and Gopalganj as well as the Muzaffarpur-Gorakhpur, Azamgarh-Muzaffarpur, Varanasi-Gaya and

Lucknow-Varanasi-Gaya

routes.

One bus each will run on the Ballia-Buxar, Ramnagar-Bhabua and Chhapra-Ballia routes.

“There are certain routes where private buses are not allowed to run while some routes have permit limitations. With these buses, the burden on trains will be reduced,” Agarwal said and added the department would start buses on the Bihar-Jharkhand route in the next phase.

Agencies have been asked to provide buses whose models are not older than 2016. The agency will be given a contract of five years and will have to adhere to the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.

Helmetless riders fined Rs 4.8 lakh:
The state transport department carried out a helmet-checking drive at all district headquarters and collected a sum of Rs 4,80,000 as fine on Saturday.

“We have decided to conduct similar inspections every Saturday. Of the 5,000 vehicles inspected, 3,400 were fined,” transport secretary Sanjay Kumar Agarwal said.


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