Commuter woes continue as majority of private buses stay off roads in Kolkata

With government, private offices and or establishments reopening as part of 'Unlock-1', people in city and districts faced problems in reaching ir workplaces on Monday as a large number of private buses stayed off roads. Though government buses were out in full strength, lesser number of private buses on roads had people waiting for long periods of time to get required transport to ir offices.

"Around 25 to 30 per cent of around 6,000 private buses that ply in city and suburbs during rmal times are back on roads," Joint Council of Bus Syndicates general secretary Tapan Banerjee said.

Banerjee said that private buses, both express and local, are also back on roads in districts, but in lesser number than rmal. He said that number of private buses are likely to increase in coming days. Private bus operators have been demanding a fare hike in order to compensate for losses for carrying only seating capacity passengers as per a West Bengal government directive.

State Transport undertaking buses of WBTC, NBSTC and SBSTC are out in optimum number in city and districts, but se did t prove to be eugh with a large number of offices and establishments reopening on Monday. With suburban trains and Metro Railway services t recommencing, burden of public transportation was much more than usual on bus services.

Long queues were witnessed at different places in city and suburbs with people waiting for a long time to board a bus. state government has allowed only seating capacity passengers in buses for maintaining social distancing rms. Auto rickshaws, app cabs and metered taxis were also on roads in higher numbers than previous days.

In order to avoid public transport woes, many people who have means, pooled four-wheelers to reach ir destination or rode two-wheelers to offices. Some even cycled several kilometres to reach ir work places in scorching heat, only to avoid jostling in buses.

"I generally take local train to office, but w I am cycling to my office at Esplanade from my residence at Sonarpur in South 24 Parganas, which is a distance of about 20 km," said Ranjit Bakshi.