Patna,(BiharTimes): The Patna district transport office seized nine buses of Eden Transport Private Limited on Friday for its failure to pay royalty to Bihar State Road Transport Corporation (BSRTC). Incidentally, the buses were flagged off by none else but the chief minister Nitish Kumar a couple of years back. The vehicles were attached on the directive of the court of Patna divisional commissioner.

In a case filed by the BSRTC against Eden Transport Private Limited, the divisional commissioner had ordered that the buses of the private operator could be seized up to the value of dues.

BSRTC administrator N Vijaya Lakshmi claimed that the buses of Eden Transport Private Limited were attached against pending dues of over Rs one crore.

She said the vehicles were attached after Eden Transport failed to respond to repeated pursuance by BSRTC for making the pending payments.
Eden Transport had entered into an agreement with BSRTC on March 14, 2011 for running 78 buses––70 of them non-AC––on seven routes of Patna. The buses were flagged off on May 15, 2011 with much fanfare and tall claims of giving a facelift to the urban transport by chief minister Nitish Kumar.
The Eden Transport last year filed arbitration cases with the arbitrator of state transport department alleging that BSRTC had not paid subsidy to it, so the company is suffering huge losses. But the BSRTC administrator, Vijaya Lakshmi, claimed that the Eden Transport had lost the case.

As the owner of Eden Transport Sachchidanand Rai has recently joined BJP the issue has taken a political colour too.