2,000+ buses off roads in Kolkata & Howrah last year, commuters stranded
Times of India | 4 January 2025
KOLKATA: Kolkata and Howrah lost over 2,000 buses in 2024, exacerbating the two cities' public transport problems that chief minister Mamata Banerjee touched on in the year's first administrative meeting at Nabanna on Thursday.
Last year, as many as 2,185 buses went off roads, even as only 154 were registered in the twin cities on either side of the Hooghly. There are 20 popular bus routes on the verge of extinction because operators do not feel the need to replace them with new buses.
The once iconis maroon-and-yellow minibuses, too, are on their last legs. Unions say barely 10% of the once-1,900 fleet would still be roadworthy by Oct.
The situation is such that Banerjee, on Thursday, drew the transport department's attention to it.
Bus operators point to chaos on the ground because of a lack of route rationalisation - which means multiple buses, allotted on the same route, have to compete for passengers. State-run buses are too few to bridge this gap. The steady decay of public transport has also fuelled a surge in private transport, especially that of two-wheelers, as commuters seek more reliable alternatives. This sharp surge in private vehicles has, in turn, contributed to traffic snarls.
For the daily commuter, the discontinuation of tram services from most routes has only worsened their plight, especially after sundown, when many buses stop plying. For them, the average wait time for buses has become longer.
'At least 20 bus routes in city, suburbs on verge of being shut'
At least 20 bus routes within the city and those connecting Kolkata with its immediate suburbs are on the verge of being shut in the span of the next eight to 10 months, sources feared. Bus operators said they need Rs 25 lakh for each bus to be replaced - the chassis costs Rs 18 lakh, the body Rs 6 lakh, and documentation another Rs 1 lakh - complaining that unless finance costs were lowered, sustaining the trade might become difficult.
"Govt needs to give concessions to owners to buy buses. At present, there are some long routes - such as 239, 235 and 230, which can run as many as 35 buses. Only a handful of routes have more than 15 BS VI buses," said Titu Saha of City Suburban Bus Service.
State buses, with the aging fleet, cannot bridge the gap. "Even if we brought out old buses from the stables, we cannot manage to maintain old timetables. Frequent breakdowns have made the situation worse," said a West Bengal Transport Corporation official.
On Thursday, the CM struck a chord when she remarked, "Transport is a silent department. Have you conducted a survey to determine where an increase in bus frequency is needed? I have myself noticed how people wait for buses after office hours."
"The CM rightly mentioned Sector V, but other major transit points, like Sealdah, Ultadanga, airport, Ruby crossing, Burrabazar and Howrah, are the same. Most of the commuters need to take several autos, paying five times the fare of a single bus trip," said Anirban Ghosh, a transport economist.