Jahangir Sofi
Srinagar, Nov 27: Amid ongoing restrictions preventing JKRTC buses from entering Srinagar city, the corporation has warned that the abrupt suspension of services has led to a 50 per cent drop in its daily revenue, threatening its financial stability.
A senior JKRTC officer said that, following the commencement of the J&K assembly session earlier this month, the corporation was “suddenly” instructed to halt bus operations in the city, causing inconvenience to commuters and further impacting its revenue.
“I don’t understand why we are being selectively targeted,” the officer said. “Private buses are still operating within the city, and we have evidence to back this up. This will negatively affect the functioning of the corporation.”
The officer said that while the northbound and southbound vehicles had previously accessed the city, they were now required to stop at Pantha Chowk and Parimpora due to the assembly session. “While fleets of similar e-buses from other companies were allowed to operate in the city, our own fleet of pollution-free e-buses and other modern vehicles was restricted from going beyond Parimpora and Pantha Chowk,” he said.
Currently, only a portion of their fleet is operational, as buses are being stopped beyond these two points, the officer said, adding that they had raised the matter with traffic authorities but had not yet received a response.
In a related development, the Managing Director (MD) of JKRTC has written a letter to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), saying that the corporation’s daily earnings have halved and has dropped from Rs 8 lakh to Rs 4 lakh due to the restrictions on bus entry into Srinagar. This, the MD said, has led to financial losses for the state exchequer and inconvenienced the general public.
In the letter, the MD urged the IGP to allow JKRTC buses to resume operations within Srinagar city to alleviate the hardships faced by both commuters and the corporation. The restriction of buses from entering the city has been in place since November 4, when the first assembly session began, he said.
“The north sector buses are being stopped at Bemina Bypass, and the south sector buses are being halted at Panthachowk by the police authorities. As a result, the public is facing difficulties and frequently approaching JKRTC with their complaints,” the letter stated.
The MD said these buses were part of a Rs 200 crore government initiative launched in 2021 to make the corporation self-sufficient while providing economical and eco-friendly transportation options to the public.
“Under this initiative, the corporation purchased 655 vehicles (buses and trucks), of which 125 buses were allocated for district services in Kashmir for inter/intra-district operations. These BS-VI, pollution-free buses cater to the transport needs of every corner of the UT of J&K and have become a lifeline for the people of the Kashmir Division,” the letter stated.
The JKRTC appealed for the immediate lifting of the restrictions, requesting that buses be allowed to operate through Srinagar city as they had been doing since October 2021. The corporation said that lifting the restrictions would end the ongoing hardships for both commuters and JKRTC.
