Berhampur, Feb. 25: Bus service in the city and its adjoining towns — Chhatrapur, Gopalpur and Hinjilicut — will roll out tomorrow.

In the first phase, 16 buses will run and the inauguration ceremony will be held at the Chhatrapur collectorate. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik will inaugurate the service through videoconferencing.

“In the next phase, more buses will join the fleet,” said Ajit Kumar Mishra, chief executive officer of Ganjam Urban Transport Services Limited (GUTSL), a special organisation formed to facilitate the transport project.

A minimum fare (see chart) of Rs 6 has been fixed for the buses, which will run on the Berhampur-Chhatrapur, Berhampur-Gopalpur and Berhampur-Hinjilicut routes and within the city. An MoU was signed today between GUTSL CEO Ajit Kumar Mishra and deputy transport manager of the service Amiya Kumar Mishra at Chhatrapur during a high-level meeting of the transport services.

Bikash Mahapatra, joint secretary of the urban department, collector and chairman of the GUTSL Prem Chandra Chowdhury, secretary of the Berhampur Development Authority Manoj Padhi, mayor and deputy mayor of the Berhampur Municipal Corporation, notified area council (NAC) chairmen of Chhatrapur, Gopalpur and Hinjilicut attended the meeting. The civic body and the NAC of Gopalpur, Chhatrapur and Hinjili are other stakeholders in the project.

The municipality had introduced town bus services in the 1990s. It was withdrawn after the civic body incurred heavy losses. Now, there is no government transport service linking Chhatrapur and Gopalpur, a tourist spot.