Covid-19 outbreak: Buses sanitised at Ludhiana bus terminal
Operators have reported an 80% loss in earnings as people are avoiding non-essential travel as a precautionary measure
In the wake of novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, private bus operators on Thursday sanitised all buses on the Amar Shaheed Sukhdev Thapar Interstate Bus Terminal and arranged for sanitisers at all 25 counters for the use of staff and passengers.
Operators have reported an 80% loss in earnings as people are avoiding non-essential travel as a precautionary measure to arrest the spread of the contagion. Private operators say only around 20% people had continued to rely on bus services after the outbreak.
Small scale district bus operators association general secretary Jaswinder Singh Grewal said operators had taken to sensitising passengers about Covid-19 and regularly sanitising private and government buses.
By Thursday afternoon, they had sanitized 150 buses in first phase. Buses will again be sanitised when the buses return to the bus terminal.
Grewal said as per the government’s recommendation, they were preparing their own sanitisers. They had bought sanitiser formula from the wholesale medicine market in Pindi Gali and had sprinkled it in buses in coordination with Punjab Roadways officials.
Later in the day the Punjab government announced the suspension of all bus services (both government and private) from Friday midnight. Grewal has also requested the government to give private operators a tax relief till the situation normalises.