Kolkata: 40 not enough, government buses to ply on 100 routes from today

KOLKATA: Long queues at bus stands across the city and traffic choke points at some busy intersections marked the first day of Unlock 1.0 on Monday morning.
While state buses plied on 40 routes, private buses of seven routes hit the roads on Monday. Taxis, bike taxis and metered cabs operated nearly 50% of their fleet strength but it wasn’t enough. To ease the pressure, the state will press buses into service on 60 more routes on Tuesday and private buses will ply on 18 routes. Several mini-buses are also likely to ply on Tuesday.

“When you resume normality after a long lockdown, there would be some teething issues. But with the progress of the week, there will be gradual easing out of troubles. We are scaling up services to optimum level so that passengers don’t need to wait long for buses,” transport minister Suvendu Adhikari told TOI.
Passengers, particularly those who do not board buses from terminal points, faced the maximum problem on Monday. “I board Dalhousie-bound buses from Taratala. But for more than two hours, I got no bus as all the seats were full from the bus terminus. So, I walked upto 14 No. bus stand to queue up for S3B. It took me more than three hours to board the bus,” said Anish Chakraborty, a private firm employee. The long queues returned to haunt STU operators during the evening peak hours.
Clogged roads added to commuters’woes on Monday. Damaged traffic signals, a surge in the number of cars and two-wheelers, fallen trees eating up road space and the inability to centrally monitor the traffic movement due to technical issues paralysed by Cyclone Amphan — all contributed to the chaos.
Police sources said with Tallah Bridge shut and ongoing work on a portion of the RG Kar bridge meant that it took close to an hour to cross BT Road and reach CR Avenue. “This was probably the first time in the past three months that cars crawled on Chitpur Lockgate Bridge,” said bank official Asim Roy. For others, crossing the Rabindra Bharati University stretch took over eight to 12 minutes alone. With north-bound traffic trying to take the new Chitpore Level-Crossing Road cutting flow from north to south, the jam stretched all the way to Sovabazar Metro station.
South Kolkata, though, managed to escape with minor snarls though the two EM Bypass connectors witnessed heavy traffic. At certain stretches, like Southern Avenue and Lake Gardens, fallen trees obstructed the free flow of vehicles. In central Kolkata, Sealdah-Entally did not witness usual snarls in the absence of train services but CR Avenue and Park street saw moderately high traffic.
Police though are worried about two-wheelers that have thrown up a challenge in prosecution in the absence of CCTV footage. Traffic police are planning to introduce barricades for night patrolling and propose a zig-zag pattern of movement so that vehicles are forced to cut down on speed.
Days after multiple complaints of excessive charges against autos originating in Salt Lake, Ultadanga and Phoolbagan, the respective unions have stepped in and decided to regulate the fares.
Reports of norms being flouted were reported from routes like Ultadanga-Baguiati, Beliaghata ID-Phoolbagan-RG Kar and Park Circus Lohapool-Dharmatala. Auto drivers from the Sovabazar-Ultadanga route claimed it was due to “passenger pressure” that they were being “forced to carry extra passengers”. “We are looking into the complaints,” said DC (traffic) Rupesh Kumar.