Kolkata: Following Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's instructions to strengthen surveillance and check revenue pilferage at various truck terminals in the bordering areas, the Bengal government has managed to collect revenue of Rs 50 lakh in the past three days.
Seven truck terminals in the bordering districts came under the control of the state Transport department from Monday.
Incidentally, Banerjee had recently expressed her dissatisfaction over the pilferage of revenue in some of these truck terminals. According to sources, revenue generated from four truck terminals out of seven are directly coming to the state's exchequer.
These four terminals are situated in North 24-Parganas' Bongaon, Phulbari in Jalpaiguri, Hili in South Dinajpur and Changrabandha in Cooch Behar.
These terminals had been under the control of local civic bodies or the Zilla Parishad.
The other three truck terminals situated in Alipurduar's Jaigaon, Malda's Mahadipur and Panitanki in Darjeeling district are mostly run by private players.
The state government has taken up initiative to set up truck terminals in these areas as well. District Magistrates of the concerned regions have been asked to identify lands where the project can come up. There will be no private parking lots within the 15 km distance from these proposed truck terminals.
According to government sources, more than Rs 50 lakh has been collected as revenue after the Transport department took over the four terminals.
A rent of around Rs 200 has been fixed for various types of trucks for the first 24 hours.
After this, the truck drivers have to bear an additional cost of Rs 20 against parking for each hour. In case of trailer-trucks, Rs 40 will be charged for every hour after 24 hours pass by. In case of containers, around Rs 500 will be charged for the first 24 hours and then Rs 50 for every hour.
During a recent administrative meeting, Chief Minister Banerjee said as there was no centralised system to collect revenues, some local people and a section of employees were taking advantage of the lapses.
She also directed top officials to take necessary steps to ensure that no loss of revenue occurs in these terminals. The state Transport department officials have taken prompt action and it has started yielding results.