State transport minister Firhad Hakim inaugurated a bus service between West Bengal’s Siliguri and Nepal’s capital Kathmandu on Wednesday.
From now on, a 40-seater North Bengal State Transport Corporation (NBSTC) bus will be ferrying people from Siliguri on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays every week.
The bus will leave Siliguri from the junction bus terminus at 3pm.
All the bus tickets have been priced at Rs 1,500 and can be collected from the Tenzing Norgay bus terminus in the city.
The service will benefit hundreds of Nepalese people who regularly travel to Siliguri, Darjeeling and the neighbouring state of Sikkim for business as well as personal reasons. It will also boost tourism in the region.
Apart from that, the newly launched bus service will also increase the revenue earnings of NBSTC, according to the officials.
Hakim said the West Bengal government was also planning to launch a bus service between Siliguri and Bangladesh.
