Tribune press service

Patiala, May 27

The state-owned Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) and PUNBUS will soon resume luxury bus service to Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) in New Delhi. Restarting after four years, the bus service will depart from eight cities: Amritsar, Pathankot, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Patiala.

Six will travel to IGI

We will run six buses from different neighborhoods to IGI airport. Rates will be between Rs 810 and Rs 1,300. — Poonamdeep Kaur, Managing Director, PRTC

After the Delhi government banned bus service to the airport in 2018, passengers relied on private operators for the trip. The PRTC suffered a loss of Rs 50 crore in four years due to the ban.

The previous Congress government and Delhi’s AAP government have been involved in skirmishes over the issue. Now, with the AAP having governments in both states, several rounds of meetings have been held by officials about resuming bus service.

Sources said PRTC and PUNBUS have been ordered to carry out test drives of their Volvo buses and keep their fleets ready. The sources said the PRTC fare would be Rs 787 per passenger from Patiala and Rs 880 from Ludhiana. Private companies charge between Rs 2,000 and Rs 5,000.

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