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400 more buses start plying in Kolkata to ease commuters problem

The West Bengal government got 400 more buses on city routes on Monday to alleviate the problem of paucity of public transport faced by commuters, an official said here.

This is in addition to around 1,100 state transport undertaking (STU) buses that are already plying in Kolkata and its suburbs.

While 200 of these additional buses are non-AC STU buses, the remaining 200 were airconditioned private buses that generally ply in long-distance routes, but were given special permits to carry passengers in specific city routes.

The transport department has roped in long-distance and app-based bus operators to run air-conditioned buses to meet the demand-supply gap with many local private operators unwilling to ply their vehicles demanding a fare hike.

Several luxury air-conditioned buses which ply on long-distance routes and have been idling owing first to the lockdown and then to lack of passengers after the easing of restrictions, have started plying in specific city routes.

Dhananjay Singh of Kaushik Global Logistics said the company has got the transport authority”s nod to run 20 buses between Barasat and Dalhousie at present and will decide on running more depending on passenger response.

“We ply these buses to and from Siliguri, Asansol and various other long-distance routes. But since there very little demand, we have not restarted the services after easing of the lockdown,” he said.

Souvik Biswas of Hexa Ride, an app-based bus company which runs air-conditioned shuttles to and from the office districts, said it is a win-win situation for both the operators and the state transport authorities.

While most of the app-based buses were idling as employees of many offices in the IT hub of Saltlake Sector V are working from home, the general public and office-goers in other places are finding it difficult to get buses to reach their destination, Biswas said.

These buses are charging fares as per the state transport authority”s fare structure for air-conditioned buses.

Local private bus operators have resumed services in the city from last week, but the number of buses has been much less than normal.

They have been demanding a hike in fares claiming that carrying only seating capacity passengers as ordered by the state government is leading to huge operating losses.

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