Patna, Nov. 16: Citizens of the state capital have to wait for another 15 days to enjoy the services of interstate Mercedes AC buses.

A fleet of 32 Mercedes AC buses, each costing Rs 90 lakh approximately, which was initially supposed to arrive in the state capital by Diwali this year, has been apparently caught in registration wrangles.

Registration of the buses, which were supposed to roll out of the Mercedes factory in Tamil Nadu, would have cost Rs 8-9 lakh in the southern state.

However, if Bihar State Road Transport Corporation, which would operate a total of 92 buses on 17 routes across Bihar and Jharkhand, registers the buses, then it can waive off a portion of the charges.

The state transport department now claims that all such issues would be resolved at the earliest and the buses operations would start from December.

State transport minister Brishen Patel told The Telegraph: “An issue seems to have cropped up regarding the registration of buses in Tamil Nadu and Bihar. As a result, the supplier has temporarily decided to withhold the departure of the buses. However, the Bihar state transport department is putting all efforts to sort out such registration matters at the earliest. The buses are expected to start operations from December.”

Under the Bihar State Road Transport Corporation, 10 of these bus routes would connect Patna with other district headquarters in the state, while seven routes would take citizens from Patna, Gaya and Bhagalpur to four district headquarters in neighbouring Jharkhand.

Bihar State Road Transport Corporation has already obtained the road permit for the Bihar-Jharkhand inter-state routes.

According to sources, the Patna-Ranchi and Patna-Jamshedpur routes would be the first ones to be covered under the interstate AC bus scheme.

Meanwhile, the disagreement over the running of ladies special buses in the state capital remained unresolved even today.

“I have asked the senior officials of my department to call on Eden Transport Private Limited on the issue of the ladies special bus services. I have asked them either to get the 15 ladies special buses back on the roads or raise the number of seats in the general buses, depending on the preferences of women in the state capital. In any case, I would not accept the allegation that we started our bus services in haste and now we are now unable to manage the services,” said Patel.

Eden Transport Private Limited withdrew the 15 ladies special buses in the state capital since the first week of November, claiming poor occupancy figures.