State to augment trips of govt buses by 100

Kolkata: The trips of government buses in the city and its suburbs will increase by another 100 with the Transport department mobilising some of the drivers involved in non-traffic duty in steering the wheels.

State Transport minister Snehasis Chakraborty on Friday held a meeting with the depot managers, traffic managers and other senior officials of the state corporations in presence of Transport secretary Saumitra Mohan for augmenting the bus trip frequencies in the city and introduction of new routes. As planned by the department, 100 trips per day will increase and with 700-750 buses plying on route daily, there will be a total of 4200 trips a day. A bus usually makes five to six (up and down) trips a day. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in a meeting on January 4, had prodded the Transport department for not having enough buses on the road and instructed the minister to take to the road and assess the ground reality. The minister following Banerjee’s prod had paid a visit to several places in the city and spoke with the passengers. “We have identified some drivers doing non-traffic duty who will be utilised in increasing bus trips.

Strict instructions were issued that buses will stop at all designated stops and pick up passengers. The conductor as well as the driver should not misbehave with commuters,” said a Transport department official. The department will hold counselling sessions with drivers and conductors so that the speed limit is adhered to which will curb accidents. “We gave proposals for increasing bus stops in the long routes and also on bringing some changes in alignment of the buses in parity with the existing metro routes to ensure that passengers get the best of services as desired by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee,” said Chakraborty.

The official added that roping in of 200 odd drivers and conductors is awaiting the nod of the Cabinet which will further improve frequencies of bus trips.