Cuttack: The municipal corporation's city bus project has remained virtually off the course with just six of the 30 buses provided for the intra-city service running on roads in the past one year.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik had flagged off the project on April 14 last year with a fleet of 20 buses. In the next six months, another 10 buses - all under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) - were provided for the project.

The state housing and urban development department had set up a special-purpose vehicle - the Cuttack Urban Transport Service Limited (CUTSL) - under the aegis of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) to drive the project.

With the municipal commissioner as the chief executive officer, the CUTSL had entered into a contract with a private operator Dream Team Sahara (DTS) to operate the city bus service for seven years.

But 14 buses have been kept off the road since February and ten buses had not been rolled out at all. In another development, the DTS has slapped a notice on the CUTSL for termination of the agreement.

Municipal commissioner Bikash Ranjan Mohapatra said: "As the private operator has cited that running the service is financially not viable, the matter is under consideration of the government."

"The private operator has cited low rate of passengers as a major factor behind the non-viability of the running the buses," Mohapatra said.

The service targeted to offer connectivity to Cuttack from Choudwar and nearby towns such as Banki. Accordingly, ten buses each started the service on two routes: Cuttack-Banki via Markatnagar and Naraj and from Markatnagar to Charbatia (Choudwar) via Badambadi and OMP Square in the first phase.

The ten buses provided in the second phase were to operate between Cuttack and Kandarpur and between Cuttack and Bayalish Mouza.

DTS chief executive Sudhansu Jena declined to give details, but conceded that only six buses were running between Cuttack and Banki and 14 buses were kept off the road since February.

Head of the CMC's standing committee for licence and appeal Bikash Ranjan Behera said: "The private party was awarded contract on operation-and-maintenance basis under which it was to incur all expenses in connection with the operations, including payment of all applicable taxes. In return, it was allowed to collect and retain appropriate fares from the passengers."

Odiya Yuva Mancha president Rohan Mohanty said: "The city bus service was expected to fulfil the demands of the people as the city is yet to have an organised public transport system. It's unfortunate that project has run into uncertainty."