Chandigarh, Aug 8 — The Punjab government has decided to purchase fully built buses directly from original vehicle manufacturers, eliminating the earlier practice of buying separate chassis and outsourcing body fabrication.
The Transport Department has been directed to expedite the purchase of 650 buses — 400 for Punjab Roadways Transport Corporation (PRTC) and 250 for Punbus — to strengthen the state-run transport fleet.
“The Transport Minister, Laljit Singh Bhullar, has asked the department to procure the new buses at the earliest,” a senior official said.
The move comes as the department reworks technical specifications for the upcoming purchase. The PRTC is currently finalising requirements for fully built midi buses, which are larger than minibuses but smaller than standard full-sized buses.
However, the decision to go for midi buses has drawn criticism from private operators.
“The policy of midi buses was withdrawn in 2015. Instead, the government should buy full-sized buses,” said JS Grewal, president of the Punjab Small Scale Bus Operators Association.
The procurement process had faced significant delays due to a vigilance probe into alleged irregularities during the previous Congress government’s tenure. The investigation, launched in 2023, centers on the fabrication of 841 bus bodies during the term of former Transport Minister Amarinder Raja Warring, now Punjab Congress chief.
The bus bodies were reportedly fabricated by a private Rajasthan-based firm at a cost of ₹11.98 lakh per unit. The probe is examining why the work wasn’t awarded to local fabricators, especially when body fabrication from Punjab could have been cheaper.
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had earlier flagged the issue, raising concerns about the choice of vendor and calling for the work to be done within Punjab. However, Punjab currently lacks a Centre-certified bus body fabricator registered on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) — a mandatory public procurement platform intended to promote fairness and transparency.
Officials confirmed that the absence of GeM-registered fabricators in the state has become a key reason for the policy shift toward purchasing fully built buses directly from manufacturers. This bypasses the previous two-step system, which became controversial amid corruption allegations.
With the specifications now being revised and political will pushing for early procurement, officials say the long-stalled fleet expansion is likely to proceed soon.
