After govt's initiative, desire to hire cars to tour neighbouring countries grows

Within six months of the state Transport department's initiative to make self-driven hired cars available in the city, the private company that has been engaged to provide the facility has started receiving queries for hiring cars to go to neighbouring countries.

In the past three months, the private company has received around 12 to 15 queries about hiring cars to go to Nepal and Bhutan. Most of the people, who enquired about hiring cars to visit the neighbouring countries, are from the city and its outskirts. Some of them are from other metropolis too.

Most cars get hired during weekends and the demand goes up during long weekends. People who have enquired about hiring cars to go to Nepal and Bhutan are mainly for the purpose of tourism. There are a section of people who want to drive cars of their own to visit a tourist spot.

In the past six months, several people have hired cars from the city and set out for a week-long journey to tourist spots including Darjeeling, Dooars and Sikkim. Many had hired for short trips to places like Digha, Mandarmani and Sunderbans.

After the success of the service for such trips, the people have started showing interest to go to foreign countries by driving the hired cars.

During enquiries, the people have mainly wanted to know the formalities that one has to follow to hire and drive cars to the neighbouring countries.

In both Nepal and Bhutan, cars with Indian permits are allowed to ply. Only the commercial cars have to be under certain insurance coverage to get permission to go across the border into Nepal or Bhutan.

Again, there is a time specified for how long a car can continue to be in the neighbouring countries, said general manager Supratik Roy of Orix Auto Infrastructure Services Limited, adding that people having Indian driving licences are allowed to drive vehicles in both the countries.

It may be mentioned that the service was launched in the city on October 8, 2016. Suvendu Adhikari, the state Transport minister, had inaugurated the service that had been initiated with a fleet of 15 cars.

Demand for self-driven hired cars has gone up manifold as a result the company has added more cars in their fleet and they are also planning to introduce 10 more cars in the next six months.

It may be mentioned that the state Transport department has also received a proposal of introducing rent a bike service from a private company and the department is going through the proposal. The decision in this regard is yet to be taken.