‘Panchayat Poll Effect – 80% Private Buses Off The Roads, Situation To Be Clear After 2 Days – Operators ‘ – News18

With 80 per cent of the private buses still off the city roads in the wake of the West Bengal panchayat elections and subsequent repolling on Monday, the woes of commuters will continue for at least two more days, an association of private bus owners said.

Of the 32,000 private buses that ply on various city routes daily, only around 1,200 hit the roads on Monday, general secretary of the Joint Council of Bus Syndicate, the apex body of private bus owners, Tapan Banerjee, told PTI.

”Majority of our workforce come from rural areas of North and South 24 Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly districts, who are yet to return after exercising their franchise on July 8. Many of them are waiting for the poll results and assessing the situation before heading back,” Banerjee said.

”We have to wait for at least two more days,” he added.

In addition to the lean workforce, hundreds of buses that were requisitioned for poll duty by the state government to ferry polling officials and security personnel to rural areas are yet to return.

”Since central forces would continue to remain in the respective areas of their deployment for some more time even after the polling process is over, there will be shortage of buses for a few more days,” he said.

A transport department official said 50 per cent of the state-run buses, which bear around 20 per cent of the passenger load in the city, are also on poll duty and are likely to return on Tuesday.

”We will ask the private bus operators to bring back the entire fleet on road by July 12,” he said.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)