BISWANATH CHARIALI, Aug 18 - The Government of Assam, as announced in the Budget speech of 2019, has introduced a new scheme, named as �Uberisation� which will be implemented by the Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC).
For successful implementation of this scheme, the State Government will provide subsidies to the beneficiaries. This amount will be 25% of the total cost of the buses. The remaining 75% of the cost of the buses will have to be borne by the beneficiaries under the scheme. Out of the 25% sanctioned by the government, 15% is refundable and 10% is non-refundable, if the beneficiary operates the bus for five years under ASTC. This was announced by Ashok Bhattarai, Chairperson of the Assam State Transport Corporation recently.
At a press conference at the Circuit House, Biswanath Chariali, he stated that assuming the cost of vehicle for a super bus at Rs 40 lakh (maximum) and Rs 24 lakh for an inter-district or a city bus, the government has decided to procure 668 buses. The �Uberisation� scheme will cover every nook and corner of the State including Guwahati city, BTAD, hilly areas (Diphu-3, Haflong-3, Lumding-1, Lanka-3), tea garden areas (Tezpur-5, Jorhat-7 and Tinsukia-13), developing areas such as Majuli, Dhemaji, Dhubri and Sadiya. The government has also decided to introduce city bus services in four major towns of the State shortly. The towns are Jorhat, Silchar, Dibrugarh and Tezpur.
Describing about the beneficiaries, Bhattarai said that they must be individual entrepreneurs, partnership firm or start-up companies. Each beneficiary will get a maximum of five buses and they must operate the bus for a minimum period of five years under ASTC. The beneficiary will get all the public service facilities at ASTC bus terminuses. Chairperson Bhattarai also distributed identity cards for mediapersons among a section of media personnel of Biswanath district.
