NBSTC plans bus service to Bangladesh

Siliguri: After the success of its Indo-Nepal bus service, the North Bengal State Transport Corporation (NBSTC) is planning to start a similar service to Bangladesh. Along with this the department is also planning to go green by launching CNG-powered buses.

“We got a great response from the Nepal Bus service. We are also planning a bus service to Dhaka in Bangladesh via the Fulbari border. It is in a conceptual stage,” stated Partha Pratim Roy, Chairman, NBSTC.

On Monday, the 232th Board meeting at the State Guest House in Siliguri resolved to take the plan of an Indo-Bangladesh bus service forward. “The Indo-Bangladesh bus services will be in the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode on the lines of the Nepal services. The NBSTC will collaborate with a private company to start the services,” stated Sarkar.

NBSTC will also resume services to Ranchi, Patna, Mujaffarpur within a month. Along with providing service to the public it will help in rejuvenating economics for the NBSTC.

Earlier, the NBSTC had started a bus service from Siliguri to Kathmandu, Nepal in collaboration with a private company. According to the NBSTC Chairman, the bus is running packed to its capacity.

Partha Pratim Roy informed that six crore rupees have been sanctioned to start CNG bus services. Before starting the services the department will build seven refilling stations on Cooch Behar to Kolkata route.

After completing the work around 20 CNG buses will ply from Coochbehar to Kolkata in the primary stage.

The NBSTC has set a goal of converting maximum number of buses to CNG. They will also use old buses which are not running now. “We have a total of 940 buses. Among them 750 are operational. We will also use the remaining buses by modifying them,” Roy added.