A crane pulling the 217B out of Lower Bagjola Canal on April 4. A Telegraph picture

How much revenue will the hired cranes generate?

Police were stumped by the query from the state home department when they sought approval last year for hiring eight large cranes, which were to be used for removing vehicles that have broken down or met with an accident.

The query had put paid to the proposal of hiring the cranes; the fallout was felt the most on April 4 when a bus on route 217B plunged into Lower Bagjola Canal in Kestopur.

Twenty lives were lost — one more passenger died a few days later — as the police failed to bring a heavy crane to the accident spot on VIP Road on time.

“According to the proposal, the cranes were to be stationed permanently at the headquarters of North and South 24-Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly. Had we received the nod, we could have pulled the bus out and rescued the passengers much earlier,” said an officer in the traffic department.

The state traffic police had sent the proposal to the director-general of police in July 2007. Following a nod from transport secretary Sumantra Chowdhury, the police chief forwarded the proposal to the home department.

“But the home department’s question left us stunned. We had planned to hire the cranes for the people’s safety. Why should we consider making profit from them? We had no answer to the query,” the officer added.

According to the present system, the police hire cranes to remove vehicles that have broken down on busy roads, causing traffic snarls. “After removing the vehicles, we charge a fee from the owner,” said an officer. “But generating revenue from the cranes is not our primary motive. Our aim is to remove vehicles to ensure smooth movement of traffic and rescue accident victims at the earliest.”

Utpal Kumar Dutta, the additional director-general in the state traffic department, said: “We had decided to hire the cranes for the year, as on several occasions we found owners were not willing to send cranes. During emergency, precious time is lost trying to convince the owner to send a crane.”

The traffic department is in a fix about what to do now. “We will try to explain to the home department the necessity of hiring the large cranes. If we fail, the plan has to be abandoned.”