Private buses to run in Odisha from Thursday
BHUBANESWAR: After a gap of more than two months, private buses within the state will run from Thursday. The All Odisha Bus Owners Association on Wednesday decided to resume the bus services a day after the state government has considered their demand to waive motor vehicle (MV) tax for three months.
“Despite knowing that bus owners will face loss due to low passenger turnout, we have decided to run the buses across Odisha from Thursday for larger public interest. We will adhere to the directions issued by the state government like running buses up to full sitting capacity. Standing of passenger inside the buses will not be allowed, said Debebdra Sahoo, general secretary of the All Odisha Bus Owners Association, after their general body meeting.
Sahoo said there will be no hike in bus fares in view of the difficulties faced by the people in view of the lockdown.
All 14,000 buses may not start operations on a single day as most of the buses need repair repair as they were off roads for more than two months. It would take at least a week or 10 days to start normal operations of buses across all routes in the state.
On running inter-state bus services, Sahoo said the inter-state bus operations would start only after permission of the neighbouring states like Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Jharkhand.
The state government on Tuesday considered the association’s demand to waive MV tax for three months (April-June) while the government also assured to positively consider other demands like insurance for around 60,000 staffs and requesting centre to waive interest rate on vehicle loans.
State transport minister Padmanabha Behera said all passengers travelling across the state by any mode of transport shall compulsorily wear face masks and persons with visible symptoms will not be permitted board the vehicles. “The bus owners have been asked to ensure it while resuming bus operations,” said Behera.
While allowing inter-state and intra-state operations of buses on Sunday, the state government has allowed movement of public transport, private vehicles, and taxis (including cabs by aggregators like Ola, Uber, etc.) to and from airports, railway station and bus terminals/stands/stops round the clock for facilitating movement of passengers by air, rail and road.