4,000 private buses to go off Kolkata roads
Added to this, there has been a steady decline in the registration of new buses at the city's four regional transport offices (RTOs) — from 871 in 2014-15 to only 46 in 2023.
With nearly 4,000 private buses slated to go off the road after having completed 15 years of service, commuters in Kolkata are likely to face trying times this new year.
Added to this, there has been a steady decline in the registration of new buses at the city’s four regional transport offices (RTOs) — from 871 in 2014-15 to only 46 in 2023
The major decline in the registrations took place during the pandemic period, a senior Transport Department official said. “We saw a reluctance on the part of the private bus operators to purchase new vehicles. But then we witnessed an increase in the number of commercial carriages like taxis and auto-rickshaws.”
It is difficult to make a profit by plying a bus in Kolkata. If a person is not able to make a profit why should they be interested in this?” said a bus operator
Though state Transport Minister Snehashish Chakraborty acknowledged the problem, he declined to comment on the bus fare issue. “Before Covid-19, the number of buses in Kolkata was increasing but it went down thereafter. We are trying to meet the shortfall by buying new buses. But this scale of requirement can not be met by the government. Therefore, we are trying to ply buses in the city in public-private partnership (PPP) mode,” he said.
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