Kolkata: Buses ‘lose passengers’ after new East-West link, look for extended routes

KOLKATA: The City Suburban Bus Service and Joint Council of Bus Syndicate — two of the biggest bus unions in the city — have claimed that at least four major private bus routes — KB-16, 239, 215 and 44A — are losing anywhere between Rs 400-Rs 800 per day after the Sealdah Metro station became functional.
However, the CNG route between Ultadanga-Shapoorji that became operational barely a couple of months ago is reportedly the worst hit with losses mounting to anywhere between Rs 700 and Rs 1,000 per day.

“The loss might seem minor. But when we are barely being able to offer services due to spiraling costs, even this loss is hurting our operating costs. We will like the transport department to carry out a route rationalization keeping in mind that the entire East-West Metro will become operational from next year,” said Titu Saha, general secretary of the City Suburban Bus Service.
Bus operators on other routes like 260 and Rajarhat-Nabanna said that passengers headed for Karunamoyee and Sector V from central Kolkata are no longer preferring to use their routes. “We are now concentrating on getting passengers beyond Sector V,” said a conductor stating that they can “compete only with autos and not the Metro.”
Many buses on route 239 are plying on extended routes, servicing Sharpoorji instead of terminating at Karunamoyee.“We always knew we had to change our alignment once Metro starts plying and hence experiments began right after the pandemic. Instead of using the white boards (buses that terminate at Karumamoyee and goes via the KB-KC block of Salt Lake), we are now taking the straight route up to Shapoorji using the yellow board of 239. Locals here know that when we shift to yellow boards from the white ones, we do not go to Karunamoyee. In future, we mat not terminate at Karunamoyee at all as our route alignment is exactly the same as the Metro’s,” said a bus owner of route 239.