Cuttack, Nov. 7: Orissa High Court today refused to entertain the state government’s plea expressing inability to comply with the court order to provide 10 more buses under the Dream Team Sahara (DTS) service to Cuttack.

The court advised the state government to extend the service within two weeks by plying 10 of the 20 buses lying idle with Bhubaneswar-Puri Transport Services Limited.

The division bench of Justice B.P. Das and Justice M.M. Das issued the fresh direction after taking note of an affidavit filed by assistant secretary of the State Transport Authority Achyutananda Behera.

Of the 125 buses, permit has been taken for 120. But, 105 of them are in operation, standing counsel of the authority Jaydip Pal told The Telegraph.

On May 16, the high court directed the state government to ply 10 more buses. The DTS is running the city bus service in public-private partnership mode. At present, 20 buses are in operation between Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.

But on August 27, the state government, in an affidavit, said the 20 buses were pressed into service by diverting 10 buses each from those deployed in Bhubaneswar and Puri under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission scheme.

The city bus service to Cuttack was started following intervention of the high court on a PIL filed by social activist Chittaranjan Mohanty.