HRTC to provide Wi-Fi at bus stands, reward efficient workers

Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) will provide free Wi-Fi facilities to commuters at 19 main bus stands and give away cash incentives to drivers and conductors appointed on contractual basis with good track record.
"The Board of Directors of HRTC has approved the proposal to tie up with Reliance communications for free Wi-Fi facility for 30 minutes and a formal agreement would be signed soon," state Transport minister GS Bali said.
The HRTC has also decided to give cash incentive to its drivers and conductorsappointed on contractual basis with good track record.
The efficient drivers with "no accident" record would get Rs 400 as incentive from the third year, Rs 400 from fourth year and Rs 500 from the fifth year and it would be like an annual increment paid on monthly basis, he said.

The drivers would get annual increase of Rs 1,200 per month after fifth year and would be regularised on completion of six years of contractual service.
Similarly, the conductors discouraging ticketless travelling in HRTC buses would get incentive of Rs 500 each in the third, fourth and fifth year and the cumulative increase after five years would be Rs 1,500 per month, paid on monthly basis, Bali said.

The HRTC would also run a regular Volvo bus service between Mcleod Gang (Dharamsala) and Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir). The service would be run on alternate days and Himachal High Court chief Justice would inaugurate the bus service shortly, he said.

Bali said that the HRTC has purchased 10 new Volvo buses while 15 more buses are being purchased to increase Volvo bus fleet to 50. For the first time the HRTC has a fleet of 1,500 new buses and its income has increased by Rs 85-crore during the current year and even after clearing the pension liabilities of Rs 80 crore, the loss have not mounted.
The performance of HRTC had been consistently improving and it earned additional revenue of Rs 85 crore during this year and in spite of clearing the pension liability of Rs 80 crore, the loss have come down and the per litre km average has also increased from 3.62 to 3.64.

Bali said that proposal to construct 11 new bus stands on Public-Private Mode (PPM) has been approved while construction oftwo more bus stands is under consideration.