Transport dept continues additional bus services in North Bengal

Kolkata: Giving relief to thousands of people when proper railway connectivity with North Bengal is yet to be fully restored, the state Transport department is continuing the additional bus service to help people reach their destinations from North Bengal without facing any inconvenience.

Following directions of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, North Bengal State Transport Corporation (NBSTC) had started operating around 130 buses everyday to and from Kolkata to different points in North Bengal from mid-August. The additional bus service was brought in place when the railway connectivity with North Bengal was disrupted due to flood.

Suvendu Adhikari, state Transport minister, said: "We will continue to provide the additional bus service for connectivity with North Bengal till railway service is fully resumed and we will continue to provide the same even after that if found necessary."

It may be recalled that during the flood, people were running from pillar to posts to get means of transportation to reach their destinations from different places in North Bengal. The state government then took initiative and started running more number of buses from different places in North Bengal including Malda, Farakka, Chanchal, Balurghat, Siliguri, Raiganj and Cooch Behar.

It may be mentioned that additional buses are plying on routes including Raiganj-Kolkata, Cooch Behar-Kolkata, Balurghat–Kolkata, Malda-Kolkata, Malda-Dalkhola-Kishangunj-Siliguri

and routes connecting Alipurduar, Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri for the past two months.

Everyday around 60 to 65 buses leave Kolkata for different places in North Bengal and the same number of buses heads towards Kolkata from these places in North Bengal.

NBSTC is also operating buses from Siliguri to Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Mirik. It may be mentioned that two state-run buses were set on fire during bandh in the Hills. Now, with normalcy getting restored, the transport corporation is operating around 25 buses from Siliguri to Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Mirik.