RAWALPINDI, April 14: The Regional Transport Authority (RTA) has cancelled five routes of the Varan Tours which are not included in the franchise agreement, Varan Chairperson Uzma Gul told Dawn.
These routes had been temporarily given to the company to compensate for the losses incurred due to delay in the implementation of the agreement. Now that the agreement has been implemented, the five routes have been withdrawn.
The routes on which the company's services have been terminated are Adiala to Chungi-22, Golra Sharif to Rawat, Rawat to Raja Bazaar, Rawat to Sawan and Chungi-22 to G-9 Markaz (Karachi Company).
In a letter to the transport company, the RTA has directed the company to apply for permits only for those routes which were mentioned in the agreement and terminate services on the five routes which had temporarily been granted to the company.
The secretary has also assured that other transport companies would also be allowed to operate. New routes would be marked for such companies and the displaced public transport vehicles.
It is pertinent to mention here that no replacement has been made for the cancelled routes that will create great problems for the commuters especially on route number C-1 (from Chungi-22 to Karachi Company). It was the most successful route created for Varan and would always have a great rush of commuters. As many as 12,500 commuters would be carried daily on this route, said Uzma Gul.
The bus company chairperson has put all the blame for the commuters problems for the last two days on the RTA and the public transporters. She said she was neither properly informed nor coordinated with regard to the franchise decision. Another reason, according to her, was withdrawal of the vehicles from the unfranchised routes by the public transport owners.
Ms Gul alleged that the public transport owners had damaged the company's 10 buses. They threw stones at the buses and smashed their window-panes. Baqir Sajjad adds: The suffering of the commuters continued for the third consecutive day on Wednesday with no solution in sight to the shortage of the buses of the private transport company on the franchized routes.
In the daytime, the company tried to improve the frequency of their operations on Murree road to convey a feeling of "all is well" to the administration. But, even then there was a huge rush at the bus stops and all the buses were packed to capacity.
The police, in the meantime, stopped taxis from carrying passengers from the bus stops adding to the woes of the commuters. However, around sunset when most of the people had returned home, the company reverted to its original frequency and a large number of people could be seen at stops waiting for the buses.
This reporter drove from Faizabad to Central Hospital immediately after Maghrib prayers only to come across one Varan bus going towards Saddar and that too without any more space for carrying passengers.