PRTC’s daily revenue has risen to around Rs 1.15 crore. file photo

Gagan K Teja

Tribune News Service

Patiala, March 21

With many private buses going off the road in the past over two months, ever since the model code of conduct had been enforced, the state-run Pepsu Road Transport Corporation’s (PRTC) daily income has gone up by over Rs 10 lakh.Sources said the transport company owned by the Badal family and other private operators had started cutting down on the bus routes in January, anticipating a change of guard in the state.PRTC’s income has increased even though 96 of its buses have been taken off the road, including 60 under the ‘km scheme’ whose agreement had ended and 36 that were declared condemned.The corporation has a fleet of 1,075 buses. It is currently running 1,040 buses after the addition of 150 new ones in the past two years. Thirty-five buses are under fabrication at the PRTC workshop.“Earlier, most of the buses that passed through our village were private ones. Ever since the election result was declared, these have virtually vanished. PRTC buses are now ferrying passengers. I hope the new government will streamline public transport,” said Ranjeet Singh, a resident of Sandhari Majra village in Fatehgarh Sahib district.A senior PRTC officer, preferring anonymity, said the Badals had ruined the corporation to benefit their own company and other private transporters. “Chandigarh-Patiala was a monopoly route, but private buses were allowed to ply on this route and granted entry to the Sector 17 bus stand, even as PRTC buses were kept out,” he said.PRTC Managing Director Ravinder Singh confirmed that the corporation’s income had gone up. However, he said the 2001-02 model buses that had been taken off the road had become a liability on the PRTC as the expenditure on these was more than the income they generated.Nirmal Singh Dhaliwal, general secretary of the PRTC Workers’ Union, told The Tribune that the corporation had suffered due to the flawed policies of the SAD-BJP government. “Private transporters crippled PRTC. The Congress government should implement the SC order quashing all extended routes and make the corporation a profit-making body,” he added.