West Bengal Transport Minister Snehasis Chakraborty said he will hold discussion with private bus owners associations in the first week of July for modernising the transport fleet, to make it commuter friendly.
The initiatives include introducing the 'Yatri Sathi' app across the transport sector for giving real-time updates about arrival of buses at designated stops.
Speaking to PTI, the minister said in the Yatri Sathi app where is my bus feature has already been rolled out in certain routes run by the state transport department in the city as a pilot project, all state undertaking buses will be gradually brought under its anvil by this year.
"However, we need to thrash out certain issues with the private bus operators on the issue citing the cost of buying a smartphone for their drivers which will be linked with the app. Apart from bus owners unions, there are unions of bus employees and we need to take them on board. They are arguing a mobile will not cost less than Rs 8,000 and cite the economy factor and the earning from a bus after several trips," he said.
Chakraborty said the transport department has plans to put up digital display boards across bus shelters in the city and neighbourhood and make the waiting time for passengers minimal by streamlining the system.
"We are sympathetic to the concern of bus operators and the economic affordability issue. We are also mulling over the idea of bearing the cost of installing android phones in private bus driver cabins by involving some parties. But we have to contemporize the present transport system and infrastructure in the city proper and the surrounding metropolitan area," he added.
The minister said to another question, that to minimise the number of road mishaps, the government will also prevail upon bus operators to install mirrors which will cover the blind spot in the driver's cabin.
A state transport official said the app has already been introduced on a pilot basis in several state bus routes covering south Kolkata and the area contiguous to airport and sector V Salt Lake and New Town.
West Bengal Private Bus and Minibus Owners Association spokesperson Pradip Narayan Bose said the state is exerting pressure on private bus owners to introduce Yatri Sathi's Where is my bus at least in some vehicles by July 25.
"We have put forward some proposals at a meeting - i.e. official ratification of Rs 10 as first stage bus fare, bringing state and private buses under same permit system, making advertising agencies pay Rs 12,000 annually for carrying back panel advertising boards and improve the road infrastructure," he said.
If the state insists without accommodating these concerns, many of the bus/mini buses will stop plying due to non-viability in business, he said.
Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.