Chandigarh,September 28
Travelling in Haryana is set to be a faster and hassle-free experience for the aam aadmi, with the state government today unveiling its ambitious new transport policy aimed at adding over 4,100 new buses to the existing fleet in both the public and private sectors.

While 3,519 permits would be offered under the new stage carriage permit scheme covering 1,017 routes to private bus operators, the Haryana Roadways is set to add nearly 600 buses to increase its fleet strength to 4,150 during the current financial year, sources said here today.

The twin decisions of allowing private players in the transport sector in a big way and to take the posts of driver outside the purview of the Haryana Staff Selection Commission and fill these immediately at the department level were taken at a meeting of the Haryana Cabinet under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda here today.

“The objective of the new scheme is to provide an efficient and coordinated bus transport service in the state to bridge the gap between demand and supply by augmenting the public transport services,” official sources said.

Only the routes having originating and terminating points in the state and not connecting two district headquarters have been included in the scheme with a view to providing a viable transport in the remote areas.

With the introduction of the new scheme, the 1993 and 2001 schemes will be repealed. However, to avoid dislocation of transport services, the existing permit holders will continue to ply their buses on the existing routes till further orders.

Officials said under the new scheme, after adjusting the private permit holders of the 1993 and 2001 schemes, applications for the grant of remaining permits would be invited.

Any person of Haryana domicile, society/firm/company registered in Haryana will be eligible to apply for only one permit under the scheme.

To take care of certain “unviable routes”, any bus with 20 or more seats will be allowed to ply under the scheme. The private operators will carry students and other concessional/free pass holders on the pattern of the Haryana Roadways.

The permit fee will be Rs 5,000 and Rs 2,500 for buses having more than 32 seats and buses having up to 32 seats, respectively. The passenger tax will be charged under the scheme at a rate of Rs 200 per seat per month. On rural routes (routes lying more than 50 per cent on village roads) and urban routes (routes lying more than 80 per cent within the municipal limits), the passenger tax will be at a rate of Rs 100 per seat per month. A penalty of Rs 10,000, 25,000 and 50,000 will be charged for the first, second and third offence of plying the bus on an unauthorised route after availing the lower tax facility on rural/urban routes.