Odisha allows passenger bus service in Green zone

The Odisha government on Monday partially modified its earlier order and allowed plying of buses on both intra-district and inter-district routes in the green zone with restrictions, an official notification said.

The notification issued by Chief Secretary A K Tripathy said that buses will ply with passengers up to 50 percent of their seating capacity. "They will ply exclusively within the green zone without passing through the territory of any red zone or orange zone," it said.

The notification further said that plying of buses within the green zone will be subject to fulfilling other statutory requirements such as route permit, registration certificate, fitness certification, pollution under control certification, insurance and others.

Earlier in the day, Odisha Commerce and Transport minister Padmanabha Behera had said that the department had submitted a proposal to the Chief Ministers Office seeking operation of bus service in the green zone. The state has about 15,000 passenger buses which are idle since the lockdown was imposed in the state on March 22.

Though the MHA guideline allows running of passenger buses in the green zone, the Odisha Bus Owners Association has expressed reluctance to run vehicles with 50 percent capacity fearing losses, the minister said.

However, the minister said, the government has been considering some relaxation for the bus owners so that they will not sustain loss if they operate the vehicle with 50 percent of their capacity.

He said now buses will run as usual in 16 districts where there is no impact of COVID-19 now.

Of the 30 districts of Odisha, 16 districts are in the green zone while 11 districts are under the orange zone and three other districts - Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation have been categorized as the red zone.

The districts which are in the green zone are Angul, Bargarh, Boudh, Sambalpur, Gajapati, Jagatsinghpur, Kandhamal, Malkangiri, Mayurbhanj, Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Rayagada, Sonepur, Cuttack and Puri.

Similarly, districts like Khurda (except Bhubaneswar), Sundergarh, Kendrapara, Koraput, Keonjhar, Deogarh, Jharsuguda, Bolangir, Dhenkanal, Kalahandi and Ganjam are under the orange zone.

(Image - PTI)