Esplanade: Transport dept to seek more time to shift bus terminus

Kolkata: The state Transport department will seek more time from the Calcutta High Court for shifting the bus terminus at Esplanade.

State Transport minister Snehasis Chakraborty held a meeting with stakeholders on Tuesday in presence of senior officials from the his department and senior officials from Public Works department led by its Secretary Antara Acharya.

“Around 600 long-distance buses terminate from Esplanade bus terminus daily. However, the court has directed for shifting of the bus terminus. In this backdrop, we are looking for alternative sites and has already identified Santragachi which has already has an existing bus terminus. But, we further need to develop infrastructure of Santragachi so that a huge volume of buses can be shifted there. It would be a time-consuming process and for this we will seek time from the Calcutta High Court,” Chakraborty said.

It was discussed that the private operators of long-distance buses may need to introduce shuttle services from Esplanade for carrying passengers upto Santragachi.

“The PWD engineers will prepare a DPR of the bus terminus at Santragachi which will give us an idea of how long we will take to shift vacate the Esplanade bus stand. The present infrastructure at Santragachi can accommodate 100 odd buses,” an official in the Transport department said.

There is a place measuring 5259 square km just beside the office of Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation Ltd (KMRCL) where 60 buses can be stationed. Similarly in Foreshore Road and at two places on Duke Road in Howrah, 200, 40 and 150 buses respectively can be parked.

Cumulatively all these places can accommodate 550 buses. However, encroachment is a major impediment on the Duke Road site.

The Calcutta High Court has directed the state government to shift the bus stand from Esplanade due to environmental reasons that include pollution of Maidan and Victoria Memorial and also to prevent congestion in the heart of the city.