Buses and App cabs to run in selected routes in Kolkata from today

Kolkata,12 May(HS): With a view to minimising the problem of emergency travel for the common people, particularly the frontline workers  in the middle of the current lockdown, the West Bengal government has decided to resume a limited number of bus and APP cab services in some selected areas from today with minimum passengers.

According to sources  at Nabanna,  keeping in view the huge problems being faced by the emergency workers besides the doctors, nurses, and other Medical and Para Medical staff and a section of security personnel like civic volunteers and others, the state Transport department has decided to run very limited bus services in 15 carefully chosen routes in the city and its surrounding areas from today.

Among the areas which have been chosen for these services were those like New Town, Rajarhat, Lake Town, VIP Road, Dum Dum Airport, Baguihati, Ultadanga and Jadavpur from where there is no report of any Covid-19 patient during the past few weeks, the sources said adding that  however, in case of  the declaration of any Containment zone in these areas on any day, the services would be withdrawn instantaneously.

Each bus would be allowed to carry only maximum 20 passengers at a time who would take their seats maintaining the necessary social distancing inside the bus, the sources said  and made it clear that the fare of these buses would certainly be higher than the normal ones.

Moreover, wearing of face mask and cleaning of hands with sanitizer would be a must for every bus and cab passenger on board, they said.

Since a number of cancer and other hospitals were situated in New Town, Rajarhat and Lake Town areas,  most of these buses would run in these routers to carry the patients and their relatives  to their destinations, the sources informed further.

Similarly, regarding the availability of APP cab services, the sources said none of these cab could carry more than two passengers at a time and they would run only in non-containment zones in the city including those like the areas  near Dum Dum airport, New Town and Rajarhar besides some places near Howrah station.

As the Railway ministry has decided to resume limited number of long distance train servces from today from Howrah station and several special trains with migrant labourers are to arrive here  during the next few days there would  likely to be a large demand for such cabs and government bus services, the sources said and assured that the Transport department was making all facilities to help these hapless people reach home soon.

A few days ago  similar limited bus services were resumed in the Green Zone districts of the West Bengal with limited success because of less number of passengers