Poll duty keeps buses off roads in Kolkata commuters face hardships

Kolkata, May 1 (PTI) Daily commuters in Kolkata and adjoining areas continued to face severe hardship on Friday due to a shortage of buses, with a large number of vehicles still engaged in poll duty and unlikely to return before counting on May 4.
    Acknowledging the situation, Joint Council of Bus Syndicate secretary Tapan Banerjee said more than 90 per cent of around 3,600 private buses requisitioned for the West Bengal polls have yet to report for duty.
    Most of the buses are yet to be released after polling as they continue to be deployed for post-election duties, including the movement of security personnel and officials, and are expected to remain unavailable till the counting process scheduled for May 4, Banerjee told PTI.
    The shortage has led to overcrowding in available modes of transport, especially the Metro Railways' Blue Line and Green Lines.
    The disruption has been particularly acute on routes heavily dependent on private buses like the EM Bypass stretch from Garia Station to Ultadanga and along VIP Road, BT Road, Jessore Road and GT Road stretches, he said.
    "Services are unlikely to normalise before the counting date," he added.
    Echoing the private bus operators, a senior state transport official said the 230 buses under West Bengal Transport Corporation Ltd, plying in the city and neighbouring areas, are yet to return to their depots.
    All over the state, the majority of the 700 buses, operating under NBTC, SBSTC and other state transport undertakings, are engaged for election duty, and the situation will fully normalise by the end of next week, he said.
    The conductor of a bus (route 40B) plying in the southern parts of the city said, "We have been temporarily released from election duty in the interior Howrah district by the EC. So we are in a hurry to finish two trips."
    "Later, we will go back to Howrah and can resume our routine only by May 4 afternoon," the conductor said.
    Samudra Basu, a techie from Naktala area in Tollygunge, said, "I used to reach Sobhabazar by Metro Blueline and then take a bus to the IT hub at Rajarhat, New Town, where my office is located."
    "For the last two days, I have had a harrowing time after coming out of the Metro station as auto-rickshaws refuse to go beyond Ultadanga. I have to pay much more to book a two-wheeler on an app. I hope the situation improves soon," he added.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)