Private buses stay off the roads in Bengal, social distancing flouted in crowded buses

After 45 days of the lockdown, bus services resumed from Thursday in West Bengal. But private bus operators preferred to keep their fleet off the roads on grounds, that without a proper and scientific increase in bus fare, it is financially impossible to run the buses, and that too following the state government guidelines of running them with 50% capacity.

Kolkata: After 45 days of the almost lockdown, bus services resumed from Thursday in West Bengal. But private bus operators preferred to keep their fleet off the roads on grounds, that without a proper and scientific increase in bus fare, it is financially impossible to run the buses, and that too following the state government guidelines of running them with 50% capacity.

Although the state transport department steered its full fleet on the road on Thursday, the number was not enough for catering for the huge number of commuters. Hence the inevitable happened. There was a rampant violation of social distancing norms as the passengers crowded in the limited available vehicle. From Kolkata to Siliguri, from Birbhum to North Dinajpur— the scene of overcrowding was the same everywhere.

In Siliguri, passengers crowded at the Tenzing Norgay Bus stand to catch their respective buses. The rush in the buses of North Bengal State Transport Corporation was too much, as the private bus operators there also kept their fleets off the roads. In normal times almost 6,000 buses, private and state-run combined, cater to the eight districts in North Bengal from Siliguri. But since the private operators refused to operate their fleet, NBSTC operated 500 buses, the number not quite adequate.

The scene was the same in Birbhum. Because of the non-availability of private buses, the pressure was too much on state-run buses, as a result of which there were blatant violations of social distancing norms.