A 12-member team including ten members and two officers of the transport body will be leaving for the tour on Friday morning. The entire expense of the seven-day tour would be borne by automobile giant Telco.

The offer to take the members to Shimla has come in the wake of several complaints about the functioning of buses which Telco has supplied to the PCMT.

PCMT recently augmented its fleet with 30 buses (1312 TC model) from Telco, but the decision fell under a cloud of complaints concerning certain faults in the working of the buses.

The objective of the members' tour to Shimla is ostensibly to inspect the working of the buses of the same model which Telco has given to the HimachalState Transport Corporation.

Ever since the PCMT took the buses in January, reports on the functioning of the buses, according to the members, were not satisfactory. A member said that in some instances the buses would not start even after being given a push. Other minor mechanical problems were also cited by the members.

PCMT had augmented its fleet after nearly six years and the decision of taking the buses from Telco invariably turned controversial after complaints from the members.

A series of meetings were held with Telco authorities in this regard.

According to one member, Telco authorities said that the company has supplied over 5,500 buses around the country to date. Nearly 150 buses have been given to Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, while the same number of buses were given to the Himachal State Transport undertaking.

The company said that there were no reports from elsewhere in the country about any malfunctioning of buses. It then suggested that the members themselves could inspect thebuses at Shimla and check whether any reports of their malfunctioning had been received. The PCMT members agreed to the proposal.

Among the members who would be on the tour include PCMT chairman Prakash Malshetty, and members Laxman Misal, Anna Wakhare, Balasaheb Jadhav, Vishwas Gajarmal, Murlidhar Dhage, Santosh Kudale, Shanidev Shinde, Jagdish T Shetty, Tukaram Dhamale and two senior PCMT officers. The members will proceed by road to Mumbai, by rail to Delhi, and again by road to Shimla. They are scheduled to return on July 16.