NOIDA: The chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana on Friday signed a "reciprocal transport agreement" in Faridabad to increase the number of routes that the government-owned buses of both the states can operate in each other's state.With the new agreement, the total number of kilometres that can be covered by the government buses in each state has risen by over 5%.The agreement, which replaces a 35-year-old one between the two states, was signed by UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar in Surajkund and attended by the transport ministers of both the states."The new agreement will facilitate the movement of 423 Haryana state buses on 256 routes of UP, increasing the total number of kilometres that can be covered to 66,420 kilometres while 522 UP state buses will run on 256 routes that can cover a road length of 50,034 kilometres. This is a big step towards facilitating road transport," Ajay Tripathi, regional transport officer, Ghaziabad region told TOI.In the older agreement, Haryana roadways buses were allowed to cover only 10,362 km of road length in UP while UP state buses were allowed only 8,116 km in Haryana.An official statement from the UP transport department said the new agreement will enable passenger movement from different parts of Haryana to Haridwar and Rishikesh via Meerut, Jammu & Kashmir via Saharanpur. "At the same time, it would facilitate access to Mathura-Vrindavan etc," it reads.The RTO further said that the routes are yet to be disclosed but most likely, they will help passengers bound towards Ayodhya, Gorakhpur, etc and some of them emerging from Chandigarh are likely to pass through NCR districts of UP. The UP government had earlier entered into agreements with Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand too.

Stay updated with all the Latest Faridabad headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.