Despite relaxations, buses run with 50% passengers in Ludhiana

Buses at the Shaheed Sukhdev Thapar Inter State Bus Terminal (ISBT) operated with 50% passenger load on Monday, two days after Punjab chief minister, Captain Amarinder Singh, announced lifting of restrictions on passenger capacity.

With a notification awaited from the state department, operators have not been allowed to run at full capacity even though a few private services parking their vehicles outside the bus stand were seen taking a full load.

ISBT, however, is reporting low footfall as people are staying away due to increasing Covid-19 cases in the state.

Earlier, before lockdowns, buses would fill up in five minutes, “now we have to wait for 25 to 30 minutes,” says PEPSU Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) bus conductor Gurjeet Singh.

Crowds had thinned out because of closure of schools and colleges, he added, and getting 50% passengers too was difficult, he said, adding “the transport sector has been hit badly due to the ongoing pandemic.”

Earlier, about 2,500 buses departed from the station, now only 225 were operating, he added.

Private bus operator Gurminder Singh said people like him were running a few buses because of low footfall. Interstate travel restrictions had taken a toll on the business, he added.

“The state transport department has not issued the notification as yet for allowing bus operators to run the buses at full capacity. Also footfall is low at the bus stand with operators struggling to run at 50% capacity. Only inter district buses are being run and the operators have been directed to screen the passengers before they board the bus,” said station supervisor Kuljit Singh Sodhi.