Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal along with his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday launched the luxury bus service from Jalandhar to the Indira Gandhi International airport. Speaking on the occasion, Kejriwal said it was a significant day for Punjab as the direct bus service to Delhi’s IGI airport has now started which would benefit many NRIs and their relatives. Launching a scathing attack on previous regimes in Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party national convener said various kinds of mafia, including the transport mafia, flourished under them, but the Mann dispensation has put an end to these.
Mann had on Friday announced that the luxury Volvo buses service will start from Punjab to the Delhi airport. Speaking on the occasion, Mann reiterated that for decades only private transporters had run their buses on this route and “looted people by charging according to their own whims and fancies”.
The state government has started the luxury Volvo bus service at affordable rates, he said. “This is a historic occasion when the Punjab government has fulfilled its promise to the people by ending the monopoly of the private transporters and introducing cheap and luxury travel to IGI airport in approximately Rs 1,100 for one way fare barring Amritsar, from where the fare would be Rs 1390 because of the long distance covered,” said Mann.
The Punjab chief minister said daily seven Volvo buses will ply from Jalandhar bus stand to Delhi airport. Likewise, buses will also move from Amritsar, Pathankot, Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Patiala and even from Chandigarh daily to the airport, he said.
Mann said with the plying of these buses, passengers will get comfortable, luxurious, and cheap travel to the international airport at Delhi. The chief minister said passengers desirous of going to the airport can get their booking done three months before travel whereas the tickets can be booked at the counters of the bus stand six months ahead of the journey. Mann said his government has got the mandate of people to serve the state by eliminating the mafia. He said with the rolling of these buses now “transport mafia will also be a thing of the past”. Squarely blaming the successive Congress and Akali governments for not plying government buses to Delhi airport, he said vested interests of these leaders prohibited them from doing so.
Mann said the government’s might was used not for well being of the public but allegedly for promoting transport mafia, adding that “these people monopolised the trade and exploited the people.” The chief minister said his government will take every initiative to safeguard the interests of Punjabis and eliminate all sorts of mafia or monopolies from the state.
Mann said a number of NRIs who came to Punjab from abroad complained to him that why only private players have the right to ply buses on this route and why not government buses are running on them. Mann thanked the Delhi government especially Kejriwal for extending full support and cooperation to ensure plying of the direct bus service to the IGI airport. Mann heaped praises on Kejriwal, describing him as a “daring” chief minister, saying he has big political will and takes bold decisions. The Punjab CM further said, “for an eight-year-old party, forming government in two states and having 10 Rajya Sabha MP and another set to to be elected as Lok Sabha MP (referring to Sangrur LS bypolls next week), it comes in rarest of rare things”.
Punjab Transport Minister Laljeet Singh Bhullar and Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gehlot also spoke on the occasion. Earlier, Kejriwal and Mann paid floral tributes to Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh at the statute of the legendary martyr inside the bus stand premises here.
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