Bus services may resume soon, Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday.
Addressing a video-conference with members of the Bus and Car Confederation of India, he said: “We may soon start bus transport along with some guidelines. Airlines, railways and bus transport are required to be opened on a certain scale as there are many people stranded,” the Minister said.
Mr. Gadkari said the challenge staring at the Ministry was to strike a balance between ensuring social distancing and commercial viability for bus operations.
Ministry sources said there was no decision yet on reopening road transport and that the guidelines for it will be framed by the Ministry of Home Affairs, followed by State governments.
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Many experts also shared their suggestions for resumption of bus services.
"In the beginning there will be reduced ridership because of a drop in demand as people may continue to work from home as well as due to the need to maintain social distancing. We need to look at how we improve finances for bus operators as well as how to increase the number of buses on the roads,” said OP Aggarwal from World Resources Institute, India.
"We need to look at the number of idle buses such as tourist buses and inter-city services. Can we get out of contract and stage carriage limitation to use them for city or regional operations? As far as the financial viability aspect is concerned some financial support will be required, but we also need to look at the tax structure of bus services versus those of metro services. There is also need to revive the national bus rejuvenation programme," Mr Aggarwal added.
