Night bus service to start from March in city

Kolkata: The state Transport department is going to start night bus service from March, to ensure that people reach to their destinations even after midnight, without facing any inconvenience.

Initially, 24 buses will be plying from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. All the buses are 34 seaters and more buses will be introduced, once the initiative becomes successful.

All the buses will be fitted with panic button and GPS, so that they can be tracked in case of any emergency. Passengers can also alert concerned authorities, using the panic button.

The bus service will initially be made available on two routes. If everything goes as planned, then one route will be from Howrah Station to Kolkata Airport via Sealdah and the second one would be from Howrah Station to South Kolkata via Park Street.

The basic idea behind initiating the night bus service is to ensure that no one remains stranded after reaching any of the major railway stations and the airport, even after midnight.

The buses will be operating in such routes that they pass via major hospitals, so that family members of patients can reach the hospitals without facing any problem at night. There are many cases when people need to go to hospitals to donate blood, even at night.

This comes at the time when Suvendu Adhikari, the state Transport minister, has flagged off 100 buses on Friday. Alapan Bandyopadhyay, Additional Chief Secretary of the Transport department, was also present at the programme. Sanction letters have also been given to 2,000 Gatidhara beneficiaries.

In another programme at Millennium Park, 100 Jalosathis have been engaged, to ensure that the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is maintained at all the jetties, from where hundreds of people avail water transport services.