Income of transport dept up by 30%

The transport corporations in the state witnessed a hike of around 30 percent in income in the past two years.

In reply to a question in the state Assembly on Wednesday, Suvendu Adhikari, the state Transport minister, said that income of the transport corporations has gone up by around 30 percent in the past two years.

It may be mentioned that soon after returning to power for the second time, the state Transport department had started taking several steps to minimise loss of all the transport corporations.

The first step of them was amalgamation of Calcutta Tramways Corporation (CTC) and Calcutta State Transport Corporation (CSTC) and West Bengal Surface Transport Corporation (WBSTC) to form West Bengal Transport Corporation (WBTC). At present, there are two more corporations besides WBTC and they are North Bengal State Transport Corporation (NBSTC) and South Bengal State Transport Corporation (SBSTC).

The amalgamation of the three Corporations had ensured effective use of the infrastructure and manpower. At the same time, real-time location tracking of buses and introduction of smart cards had helped in improving the service as well as revenue generation for the Corporations.

The minister said decision has been taken to buy 270 buses in the current fiscal. During Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's visit to different districts to hold administrative review meetings, people's representatives approached her to introduce the bus services. Following the Chief Minister's instruction, more than 165 buses will be bought and for that it would take around two months' time. He further added that around 600 buses have been bought in the past six years, but the subsidy has not gone up. Moreover, the new buses are fitted with CCTVs and GPS systems to ensure security of passengers.

At present, there are 12,429 permanent employees in the three Corporations and 10,743 get pension. In the last month, several employees were brought under the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) to reduce dependence of the STUs on the state's exchequer. He further said steps have been taken to repair and construct the jetties following a standard operating procedure. For each jetty, Rs 10 lakh was being sanctioned. It has been decided to construct 16 jetties in the Sunderbans.

He further stated that stringent measures have been taken to check rash motorcycle driving.

The fine for rash driving of motorbikes has been increased to Rs 5,000. With the Chief Minister launching the state-wide Safe Drive Save Life campaign, steps were taken to ensure that no one rides motorbikes without wearing helmets. Now, the step to increase the fine has been taken to check rash driving.