Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand signed a historic agreement for inter-state plying of buses, an issue which has been pending for the past several years.
On Monday, after the agreement was signed, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his Uttarakhand counterpart Trivendra Singh Rawat hoped for better co-ordination between the two states.
The agreement will enable UP State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) buses to ply an additional 39,000 km on 216 routes of Uttarakhand, making 2,646 trips daily. Similarly, the Uttarakhand government buses will travel 2.52 lakh kms in UP on 335 routes with over 5,000 trips every day.
Besides, 57 routes have been kept for private buses in both states.
In their addresses, Yogi and Rawat said that it was a historic day for both states as now the people of UP and Uttarakhand would have facilities to travel to their destinations faster and safer.
"Better co-ordination between both states led to the agreement, which was pending for the past several years," the Chief Ministers said in their respective addresses.
Yogi said that his government was doing everything to provide facilities to the people and the bus services were a vital link.
"Both UP and Uttarakhand governments are working for the benefit of the people. This function was scheduled at Dehradun but since I was busy, Rawatji was kind enough to come to Lucknow for the function," he said.
"This agreement will facilitate pilgrims from UP to reach 'char dham' directly and also other tourists spots in Uttarakhand," he said.
Yogi, who also launched 51 new saffron buses to be used as shuttle during Kumbh Mela at Prayagraj next year, said that pilgrims going to Kumbh would get better facilities this time and the shuttle buses would ferry them from the parking area to the Mela area.
The government will ply 500 saffron buses for the Kumbh this time.
Rawat said that after the Narendra Modi government came to power at the Centre, development work in the entire country had accelerated.
"Both the BJP governments in UP and Uttarakhand are tirelessly working for the people's welfare and the agreement on bus services is one of them. The dispute over the agreement was sorted out in a day by both the governments," he said.
In his address, Minister of State for Transport (Independent charge) Swatantradev Singh said that after making a profit of Rs 122 crore in 2017-18, the UPSRTC was purchasing 1,350 buses, with 250 new buses being added in the fleet every month.
He said that the UPSRTC had introduced pink bus service exclusively for women passengers and soon, 50 new pink buses would be introduced with women drivers and conductors. He also said that 250 new CNG buses were being purchased out of which three CNG buses were launched on Monday.
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