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Punjab govt moves
to discourage car use
WSN Network
Chandigarh: Encouraging people to use public road transport instead
of their personal cars is the philosophy of the Punjab government’s
new transport policy which purportedly aims to reduce road
congestion, accidents and air pollution.
Stating these broad
objectives of the policy, transport minister Master Mohan Lal said
the government would provide the comfort of AC travel in private
cars to the common man at affordable rates. The public transport
constituted 11% of road traffic in 1951 while its share dropped to
just 1.1% in 2007. Now, the roads are flooded with private vehicles.
Also, the government
would soon constitute a road safety council to provide relief to
road-accident victims according to their status. While the family of
the deceased would get a minimum of Rs 2 lakh, the injured too would
be given adequate compensation for his treatment.
Lal said the council would be funded through a cess to be imposed on
private vehicles while each truck entering Punjab from outside would
pay Rs 30 per entry. Private cars would shell out onetime cess
depending on the price of the vehicle.
He said the first
fleet of 50 AC buses of Punjab Roadways for the main long routes in
the state would be on the road before the next summer. Besides,
private players would come out with AC buses in large numbers soon
after the notification of the new policy.
26
September, 2007
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