Passengers seek return of comfort ride 

A bizarre dispute has slammed the brakes on the time-saving AC bus ride between Ranchi and Hazaribagh.

On November 13, 2015, Hazaribagh-based Pammi Travels had inked an agreement with the state government to operate its fleet of six buses along with five of an allied agency on the 100km route, bringing much relief to passengers while cutting down travel time by half.

On August 27, 2016, the North Chotanagpur Regional Transport Authority directed the private agency to stall services on two counts. One, rival AC bus owners had evinced keen interest in the money-spinning route. Two, they had pointed out that Pammi held only a temporary permit.

The casualty of the controversy is the common man who had become so used to riding in comfort.

Manish Kumar, a Hazaribagh businessman, said the AC buses were a boon for them. "Commuting was cool and relaxing. Now, it is back to being tiring and time-consuming. The rickety non-AC fleet should be taken off the roads and the Pammi buses brought back," he said.

Ravi Ranjan Singh, another businessman who frequents Ranchi, said he was being forced to travel by car to save time.

Nitesh Tiwary, who owns a cyber cafe at Prabhu Niwas Market in Hazaribagh, is finding it difficult to take his ailing mother for routine medical consultation in Ranchi. "The AC buses should be brought back to end our day-to-day inconveniences," he said.

Proprietor of Pammi Travels Ashraf Ibrahim said when they had started the service, no one else had shown interest. "Now that the route has become profitable, everyone wants a slice of the pie," he said.

Insiders in the transport authority conceded that Pammi Travels had brought about a marked change in Ranchi-Hazaribagh travel by rolling out the AC buses. Each of the 11 buses (five of ally Hemkunt Travels) made three trips daily between the two cities, ferrying more than 1,500 passengers. Each of the 33 trips took an hour and a half, courtesy a well-maintained fleet, against the three hours earlier.

Secretary of the regional transport authority Prabhakar Singh said they had found the demand of other private bus operators genuine and had asked them to apply for permits from September 15.

"Under rules, a maximum of 20 buses can ply on the route, each at an interval of 20 minutes. On September 29, board members will meet and issue permits to other selected operators to end this controversy," Singh added.

Pammi proprietor Ibrahim dubbed the decision of the transport bosses grossly unfair.

"We had invested Rs 45 lakh on every buses and are now suffering hefty losses. We have been losing Rs 1 lakh in business every day since the services were stalled on August 27. The fleet is gathering dust on a vacant plot of land on Lohsigna Road," he rued.