The bus service being launched on Thursday. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 1: The cost of travelling to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) from Master Canteen Square just went down from Rs 100 to Rs 15, thanks to a new bus service launched this morning.

The service was inaugurated this morning with four 40-seater buses at the gate of AIIMS, which is situated at Sijua on the city outskirts. These buses will ply between the health care institute and Master Canteen Square via Vani Vihar, Acharya Vihar, Jayadev Vihar, Fire Station Square, Khandagiri and Aiginia.

Sudhansu Jena, chief executive officer of Dream Team Sahara, the private operator of the city bus service, said that these vehicles would be available every half an hour. “The buses will run from 7am to 7pm on this route, which has been numbered Route-531. For the 16km distance from Master Canteen to AIIMS, the fare has been fixed at Rs 15,” he said.

Though AIIMS began functioning a year ago, there was no city bus service to this destination. The operators feared loss of revenue with only a few people visiting the institute. But, they had got a report from the AIIMS authorities in June saying that about 600 patients were visiting the institute every week.

The Telegraph had carried a story in June about the lack of proper transportation facilities to AIIMS. Later, the housing and urban development department decided to start a bus service to AIIMS on an experimental basis.

However, in the annual general body meeting of Bhubaneswar-Puri Transport Services Limited, which manages the city bus service in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri and Khurda, it was decided to run four city buses to this health care institute from August 1.

AIIMS authorities and the general public were happy after the launch of the service. Till today, the nearest bus stand to the institute, Aiginia on NH-5, was 3km away and autorickshaw drivers demanded anything between Rs 50 to Rs 100 for this distance.

“Now we can go to AIIMS paying as little as Rs 15,” said Sumita Sethy, who had a bitter experience while taking her husband to AIIMS a few days ago, when the autorickshaw-driver misbehaved with them when they failed to pay the exorbitant fare demanded by him.

AIIMS authorities are also happy with the development. “We hope this service increases the flow of patients to this institute,” said AIIMS director Ashok Mohapatra.