Kolkata: Around 3,500 buses and app cabs, except around 150 that are being used as quick response vehicles, were back on the city roads on Wednesday, providing much-needed relief to commuters.
City Suburban Bus Service’s Titu Saha and Indranil Banerjee, general secretary of the Online Cab Operators’ Guild, said that though certain pay issues remain, the buses and cars have been returned in a condition that they can hit the roads immediately.The only challenge was cleanliness and hence a few buses will resume operations from Thursday.
People said the waiting time had reduced considerably on Wednesday. “On Monday, many buses were not on the road. But I did not face any issue on Wednesday,” said Supratik Banerjee from Joka.
Though bus frequency is yet to normalize as workers have not yet returned from the districts after casting their votes, at least the entire fleet is back. Anurag Agarwal of Urban Paribahan City Bus Services said they had sent almost 800 buses on poll duty, a majority of them AC. Most have returned. Some are on the way from distant districts like Purulia and Jhargram. “All buses need deep cleaning as the interiors are filled with mud and the exteriors were pasted with stickers. We have to get them ready for schools in two days,” said Agarwal.