While only four out of ten buses were started on the route, the Haryana Roadways has been asked to shell out around Rs 6.5 crore as financial liability for the annual maintenance of 10 Volvo buses for five years.

There is a controversy over the Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) proposed by Volvo Company. According to the Roadways, the contract will take out an extra amount of around Rs 3.5 crore from its revenue kitty.

According to the officials, the maintenance cost for the first year should not be calculated as all these buses are under warranty period for one year. They say that the extra amount spent on the maintenance could help them reach the breakeven point so that the profits could be utilised in procuring more buses.

According to the AMC, the charges have been calculated by the company on the basis of kilometres. The amount of AMC is calculated at the rate of Rs 4.05 per kilometre for 783 kilometres covered per bus per day. For every kilometre over and above, the limited 2,40,000 km per bus per year, extra maintenance cost at the rate of Rs 0.30 is calculated. This amount after addition of 12.5 per cent service cost comes to be Rs 6,49,22,512 for ten buses for five years.

The maintenance cost calculated by the Haryana Roadways as per ‘Preventive Maintenance Contract’ is Rs 3,05,22,375. The excess amount they are asked to pay if the AMC is signed comes out to be Rs 3,44,00,197. Officials say the maintenance cost should not be calculated on per kilometre basis but on per month basis.

Sources say the AMC is the bone of contention among the company and Roadways. The Roadways is not ready to shell out an extra amount of around Rs 3.5 crore on the maintenance of the buses.

The Volvo buses already have a history of disagreement which resulted in the stalling of the service for some months. The Roadways earlier had the Volvo buses on leasehold basis from the private companies but the companies discontinued the contract.