Jamshedpur, Dec. 3: Though aimed to promote tourism, few tourists opted for the maiden bus trip from Jamshedpur to Siliguri today.

The 36-seater deluxe bus, which was flagged off from the Mango bus stand this afternoon, remained almost empty with only 10 passengers occupying seats.

Though the booking of tickets began on Saturday, passengers were not aware of the new bus service linking the two cities due to lack of publicity.

“I had come to the bus stop to drop my nephew on Saturday evening when I learnt about the bus service for Siliguri. I opted for the road journey as it is both economical and time-saving,” explained Arijit Ghosh, a passenger on board.

The fare, which has been fixed at Rs 350, is economical as compared to rail tickets.

Another passenger, Partho Sarkar, said: “It’s a welcome move to start a bus service between the two destinations. Business takes me to Siliguri often and in the absence of a bus service I had to depend on the railways.”

The bus service was started by the North Bengal State Transport Corporation (NBSTC) following a request from the district BJP (tourism cell). The bus is expected to take 20 hours to reach Siliguri.

Toshan Jha, the vice-president of district BJP (tourism cell), while talking to The Telegraph said a delegation of the party met the transport minister of Bengal last month and requested him to launch a bus service connecting the two cities.

“The minister told us that the bus service would be launched keeping in view the demand. However, today being the first day the response was not good but we are hopeful of getting an impressive occupancy in the coming days,” said Jha, adding that the maintenance of the bus would be done by Yatayat Karamchari Welfare Society.

At present, only one Chennai to Guwahati-bound train goes via Tatanagar to Siliguri. It is a weekly train and on most occasions does not run on time. Most people from the city prefer to go to Calcutta first and then take a train to New Jalpaiguri before reaching Siliguri.

After leaving the steel city at 2.30pm, the 36-seater deluxe bus would cross Purulia, Raghunathpur, Asansol, Durgapur, Panagarh, Suri, Rampurhat, Farakka, Malda and Kishangunj before reaching Siliguri. The bus service would be available everyday.

Two buses would be pressed into service.

The bus from Siliguri would also leave at 2.30pm and take about 20 hours to reach steel city.