Passengers on a city bus in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, June 4: Amiya Pradhan, a marketing executive working in Bangalore, boarded a city bus from the city to travel to Cuttack. Midway through the journey, he felt uncomfortable because of extreme heatwave. He demanded water and oral rehydration salt (ORS) from the bus employees, who did not have it.

Pradhan had to get down to get the ORS and drinking water from a medicine shop.

Similar is the case with many passengers, who have to face the same ordeal as most of the city buses, plying between the twin cities, do not keep drinking water and the ORS, violating the direction of the special relief commissioner.

“The temperature has been hovering around 40 degrees Celsius during this summer. But, the bus operators are not keeping any provision for drinking water or the ORS, which are supposed to give some respite from the heatwave conditions,” said Sourav Mishra, another passenger.

On May 26 last, the special relief commissioner had written a letter to the officials, including the transport authorities, to ensure provision for drinking water and the ORS on all the buses.

However, the special relief commissioner’s directive is yet to be implemented.

With the rise in temperature as the heatwave-like conditions affecting day-to-day life, it has become necessary to keep the materials ready to fight the sunstroke victim. But, while many of the general buses are keeping water bottles, the city buses have no such arrangement.

Chairman of the Dream Team Sahara, the operator of the city buses, Nishikanta Mishra said: “We have opened drinking water kiosks at the main depot at Master Canteen Square. We are planning to include water bottles or containers inside the buses.”

A total of 118 buses are running on 14 routes. The vehicles were carrying over 50,000 passengers daily during February. But now, due to the heatwave-like condition, the passenger count has come down to less than 30,000 a day.

Apart from the city buses, around 500 general buses are also plying from the city to other destinations.

“Almost all our buses have drinking water bottles for any emergency. But, we have no ORS sachets as we were never been asked to keep them on the bus. If the authorities ask us to do so, we will ensure them immediately,” said Debendra Sahu, general secretary of the All Oisha Private Bus Owners’ Association.

Regional transport officer Lal Mohan Sethi said: “Most of the buses are not adhering to the instruction of the special relief commissioner.”

“We have been intimating the bus owners to keep drinking water and the ORS for combating the heatwave. But, they hardly follow the direction. We will launch a drive tomorrow to ensure that the buses keep drinking water along with the ORS sachets,” he said.