The government on Wednesday promised to roll out 400 buses this year but insiders cited records to suggest that commuters’ woes would not ease.

“We have a one-year target to introduce the 400 buses but we hope to roll them out in the first half of 2009. The buses will be allocated to the West Bengal Surface Transport Corporation, South Bengal Surface Transport Corporation and the Calcutta State Transport Corporation,” transport minister Subhas Chakraborty said.

Transport department officials during the day met representatives of Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors and Eicher to discuss the kind of chassis the new buses would have. “We will decide later who will be awarded the contract,” said Chakraborty.

Insiders in the transport department, however, did not share the minister’s optimism.

“Our experience with new buses is not always happy. Whenever a state transport corporation added buses to its fleet, the staff invariably grounded the same number of old buses citing mechanical defects,” said a senior transport department official.

The officials highlighted another problem — absenteeism and lack of “fit” personnel and proper upkeep— that stood in the way of optimum utilisation of state buses.

“Absenteeism is rampant. In all five state transport corporations, 20-30 per cent of the employees don’t turn up on any given day. As a result, even roadworthy buses could not be taken out,” the official added.

Besides, with the transport corporation incurring losses — the government till November 2008 had paid a subsidy of Rs 2,2572.58 lakh — recruitment has stopped and those with failing eyesight have been transferred to other departments. This has left the corporations short-staffed.

“Plying the new buses with the existing staff strength will be a challenge,” the official pointed out.