Bus services may resume soon with guidelines| Coronavirus Latest News

Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said Bus services may resume soon. In a video conference with members of the Bus Confederation of India.

The Minister said “We may soon start bus transport along with some guidelines. Airlines, railways and bus transport are required to be opened on a certain scale as there are many people stranded,” Nitin Gadkari said.

Minister said the challenge staring at the Ministry was to strike a balance between ensuring social distancing and commercial viability for bus and Car operations.

According to sources there was no decision yet on reopening road transport and that the guidelines for it will be framed by the MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs), followed by State governments. Some experts also shared their suggestions for resumption of bus services in the country.

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Om Prakash Aggarwal from WRI India (World Resources Institute, India) said “In the beginning there will be reduced ridership because of a drop in demand as people may continue to work from home as well as due to the need to maintain social distancing. We need to look at how we improve finances for bus operators as well as how to increase the number of buses on the roads,” he said.

“We need to look at the number of idle buses such as tourist buses and inter-city services. Can we get out of contract and stage carriage limitation to use them for city or regional operations? As far as the financial viability aspect is concerned some financial support will be required, but we also need to look at the tax structure of bus services versus those of metro services. There is also need to revive the national bus rejuvenation programme,” Mr Om Prakash Aggarwal added.

He also said work on many highway projects has resumed. While extending the lockdown, the government had made certain relaxations in green zones that have not reported Coronavirus cases by allowing movement of private vehicles.