By IANS,
New Delhi : Blueline bus operators Friday approached the Delhi High Court seeking direction to the Delhi government for utilisation of their buses by allowing them to ply on inter-state routes.
In his petition, Tara Kant Jha, an operator, said: “Permit the bus operators to operate the buses under Stage Carriage Licence granted under the ‘Reciprocal Common Transport Agreement’ on inter-state routes.”
The petition said the move will fulfill the transport department’s requirements.
The petitioner further stated that as per the status report filed by the transport department of Delhi government, out of the said 17 clusters, cluster one to nine have already been processed.
“Government has not taken any decision with regard to cluster 10 to 17. Hence, presently there exists a shortfall of buses to be provided even under the cluster schemes,” reads the petition.
Pleading to the Delhi government, the petitioner said: “Incorporate the blueline buses in the ‘cluster-scheme’ as per the policy of the Delhi government in the ratio of 60:40.”
In their plea, the operators said that they had registered their buses under the Companies Act and can offer around 250 buses under reasonable scheme framed by the state government.
The operators further stated in their petition that they have invested a huge amount in purchase of new and sophisticated Low-floor buses with GPRS systems. They say the buses fulfill all the norms required by the States Transport Authority (STA).
The petition says that apart from suffering heavy losses due to the court’s order of phasing out blueline buses, the operators had to bear the additional burden of “repayment of financed amounts to banks and other institution, without having any means for repayment”.
Taking note of the petition, a division bench headed by Justice A.K. Sikri issued notice to Delhi government seeking their response by Sep 16.