Transport dept to chalk out plans to better bus routes

The state Transport department will conduct a bus route study to see how existing ones can be modified or new ones can be introduced to cater to the rapidly changing demographic pattern of New Town.

A special emphasis will be on Action Area I and II.

A high-level meeting to discuss the matter was held last week. Debashis Sen, chairman of Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) along with the senior officials met senior officials of New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) and their counterparts in the West Bengal Transport Corporation including its chairman N S Nigam to discuss the matter.

It was decided that the Transport Department will conduct a study to see how the existing routes can be modified or new routes to be introduced to meet the demands of the residents.

The demography of New Town particularly Action Areas I and II is changing very fast. New buildings are coming up to house offices and educational institutions. Star hotels have come up and New Town has become a medical hub. More residential buildings will come up in the area in the near future.

Already HIDCO has distributed 75 plots where individual houses and housing cooperatives will come up. With the establishment of Rabindra Tirtha and Nazrul Tirtha, the area has become a cultural hub. Hundreds of people come to New Town for various purposes and to cater to them a well-knit public transport system has become the need of the hour.

Sector V, the most important electronic hub in the state, is ever expanding and for its better traffic management, steps have already been taken. A multi-storeyed car parking lot has been proposed and experts from IIT

Kharagpur is preparing a modern traffic management system for the area.

It has been decided in the meeting that a pilot scheme of installing live bus arrival information of when the next bus of a route will come etc will be installed in two bus stands, near Nazrul Tirtha in New Town and Ring Road in Sector V. The software will be provided by the Transport department while the TV and the Internet will be provided by NKDA and Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority (NDITA). A transport liaison cell will also be set up in New Town to coordinate with the Transport department.

It may be mentioned that for better transportation, bike taxis, the only-of-its-kind in Eastern India have been introduced in New Town, Sector V and Salt Lake. The project has become immensely popular particularly among the students. Now, a person travelling on a bike taxi can come to Chingrihata-Eastern Metropolitan Bypass intersection from Chinar Park via New Town, Sector V and Salt Lake.