NEW DELHI: A glimmer of hope emerged for lakhs of people who have been adversely affected by the bus row between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh as senior officials of both the States on Tuesday decided that U.P. would immediately release 122 buses of Delhi Transport Corporation which it had impounded.

Delhi Transport Minister Haroon Yusuf said he was hopeful that the crisis would be resolved soon. The six-member delegation of senior Delhi officials -- which included Principal Secretary Transport, Chairman of Delhi Transport Corporation and Secretary of State Transport Authority -- meanwhile returned from Lucknow following meetings with their counterparts there.

Mr Yusuf said during the meetings the two sides had discussed many issues. "We are examining the points raised by Uttar Pradesh. Further discussions in the case are going to be held when the delegation of Uttar Pradesh officials will come to Delhi for meeting with the officers here on Thursday."

The relationship between the two States had touched a new low on November 18 when without any notice, the U.P. authorities had impounded 105 DTC buses including a large number of school buses hours after U.P. Transport Minister Naresh Agrawal returned to Lucknow following his visit to Delhi during which Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had denied him an audience.

This happened soon after U.P. launched a new bus service -- with 150 ordinary and 75 air-conditioned CNG buses -- for Delhi without even taking Delhi's consent. The two States had signed a MoU in 1985 for 15 years which was later extended for another two years. Thereafter an agreement had been reached between them in 2004 under which DTC was allowed to run buses over 90,000 km in U.P. and the latter was allowed to operate its fleet over 30,000 km in Delhi. Though this pact was not notified by Delhi, U.P. insisted that it had launched the new CNG bus service from Noida to Delhi under this agreement.

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