Kolkata: Bus services in the city and suburban areas will continue to remain affected till June 2 due to a large chunk of the private buses being hired for polling duty and by police. The last phase of voting for Lok Sabha election 2024 will take place on June 1.
Requisition for the same started from May 27. However, the dearth of buses on city roads was felt only from May 30 evening. According to a private bus operator, the buses were initially taken on a rotational basis but a large chunk was hired from May 30. About 3,000 private buses operate in the city and suburban areas of which, depending on bus routes, 20 to 50 per cent have been deployed for elections.
A private bus operator Rahul Chatterjee informed that 250 to 300 buses from Howrah district have been hired, hence the passengers in the Howrah Maidan and Howrah Railway Station area are being highly inconvenienced. The situation will continue till June 2 and normalise by June 3.
Similarly, many drivers and staff come to duty from North and South 24-Parganas and have returned to their houses for voting. Hence, few buses will remain non-operational. While transport problems persist across the routes, the percentage of buses missing vary. According to another bus operator Titu Saha, 50 per cent buses are gone from Salt Lake, 90 per cent from Dakshineswar and 30 per cent from Jessore Road. The reducing number of mini buses and slow replacement of old buses by new were felt by the authorities as well. According to a bus operator, since the requirement of mini buses could not be met from Kolkata and Howrah, mini buses from Durgapur and Asansol were hired.
The Transport department increased the rate of hiring of vehicles, vessels and launches as well as the tiffin allowance for drivers in connection with the general election to the Lok Sabha 2024. On March 12, the Transport department informed the Chief Electoral Officer that the rates for hiring or requisition of vehicles or vessels along with the rate of consumption of fuel has been fixed. For buses, the rate of hiring of vehicles per day is Rs 2,530 which has increased from Rs 2,300. Similarly for minibus, it has been increased from Rs 1,900 to Rs 2,090. Metro services will, however, remain unaffected. Metro services will be plied on Blue Line, Green Line and like usual no services will be available on Orange —from Kavi Subhash to Hemanta Mukhopadhyay (Ruby More) and Purple line, which connects Joka to Taratala. Sealdah Division of Eastern Railway will run special EMU trains from Diamond Harbour, Canning and Namkhana to Sealdah (South) on intervening night of June 1 and June 2 to facilitate movement of polling personnel.