Rear view of one of the city buses for women

Bhubaneswar, July 24: The city bus service authorities have moved into top gear to roll out buses for women on two routes in the city.

The bus services for women only will start from July 29. This decision was taken today at the annual general meeting of Bhubaneswar- Puri Transport Services Limited (BPTSL), which manages the city bus service in Bhubaneswar, Puri, Khurda and Cuttack.

Sources said four buses would run for women on two routes in the city in the first phase. Two buses will ply on the route connecting the airport and Nandankanan, while two others would run between KIIT and Balakati. All these buses are standard vehicles with seats for 60 people. The buses will run in two shifts — 7am to 11am and 4pm to 7pm every day.

Mayor A.N. Jena, who is the chairman of BPTSL, said the move was aimed at providing more security to women passengers in the city.

This is the second such attempt by the government after the transport department launched a special bus for women to run between Cuttack and Bhubaneswar on March 8, Women’s Day.

“The chief minister will inaugurate this bus service on July 29. Depending on the success of the service, we will decide whether to extend the women-only buses to other routes in the city and places such as Cuttack, Puri and Khurda,” said the mayor.

More than 60,000 people depend on this bus service on these routes every day of whom around 40 per cent were women. The operators have reserved 33 per cent of the seats for women in all these buses.

In another devlopment, the transport authority has also decided to run four buses to the All-India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) at Sijua on the outskirts of the city from August 1. The Telegraph had carried a report on how people have been facing problems in trying to reach this apex health care institute due to lack of proper communication facilities. Following the report, the housing and urban development department had planned to run buses on the route on an experimental basis.

Sudhansu Jena, chief executive officer of Dream Team Sahara, which runs the bus service, said four buses would ply from Master Canteen Square to AIIMS via Vani Vihar.

BPTSL will get 60 new buses, including 12 AC ones, within the next four months. These buses will ply on various routes in the city and in Puri, Khurda and Cuttack.

Fare revision

Dream Team Sahara has sent a proposal regarding fare revision to the state government.

After the bus service was inaugurated on October 10, 2010, the fare has been revised once. The company officials said that according to the contract, the fares should be revised twice a year in the first weeks of January and June respectively. “They have sent the report to the government who will take the final call,” said the mayor.