'Shifting of Babughat bus stand to Santragachi soon'

Kolkata: State Transport minister Firhad Hakim on Friday said the process to shift the Babughat bus stand to Santragachi has started and will be completed soon.

Public Vehicles Department, Beltola, had issued a notification on April 11 for the shifting of the bus stand from Babughat to Santragachi within 14 days.

"The buses will be shifted to three terminuses, including Salt Lake and New Town and Santragachi. It will be shifted gradually as the department has sought some more time from the court," said Hakim on Friday. However, private operators are still unwilling to move to Santragachi mentioning that the new terminus is about 12 kilometres away from the city and will add to their overall maintenance cost.

"There are 700 buses which run within the city via Babughat bus stand. This apart, 500 long-distance buses also run via Babughat bus stand. Now, if the bus stand is shifted to Santragachi, which is 12 kilometres away, then the fuel cost will also increase," said Tapan Banerjee, general secretary of Joint Council of Bus Syndicates.

Bus operators also claimed that they are unable to run buses due to skyrocketing diesel price which now stands at Rs 99.83 per litre. "In the last one year, the price of diesel has increased by more than Rs 15 and the bus fare is the same. We will die an unnatural death if the price of diesel is increased by the Central government in future," said Banerjee.