City bus service started on a new route from Buddha Park in Niladri Vihar to Kalpana Square in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 30: Bhubaneswar-Puri Transport Services Limited (BPTSL) today introduced city buses on a new route from Niladri Vihar to Kalpana Square. The charge for the 15-km journey between the two points has been fixed at Rs 10.

Sources at the bus service operator, Dream Team Sahara, said: “Though the new bus route is from Niladri Vihar to Kalpana Square, it will go up to KIIT University campus. Therefore, with a ticket of Rs 10, a student from Patia can start from KIIT University and go to places such as Infocity, Niladri Vihar, Sailashree Vihar, Damana, Chandrasekharpur-Omfed Square, Kalinga Hospital Square, Sainik School, Institute of Physics, National Institute of Science Education and Research, Utkal University, Regional Museum of Natural History, Planetarium, Acharya Vihar, Master Canteen, and Kalpana Square.

Ratnakar Pati, an employee of KIIT University, said: “Introduction of this new bus route will help the student community more as the area has emerged as a major educational hub in the state and many students from other regions come to study here. This new bus route will help people of this area to reach the railway station easily.”

“The students still feel that public transport system is inadequate in areas such as Patia and Infocity. It will be better for the community if the authorities decide to ply more buses along this route,” said Subhakanta Swain, a third-year engineering student of College of Engineering, Bhubaneswar.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena inaugurated the new bus service in the afternoon as part of the series of services launched to celebrate the Local Self Government Day tomorrow.

Dream Team Sahara will deploy five buses for the new route. Therefore, a total of 90 buses will ply in the city bus service network in 12 routes, including those to Cuttack and Puri.

“At present, we are running 15 buses in Cuttack. But as Orissa High Court has given a directive to introduce more buses for the historic city, we are planning to add five more buses for Cuttack. Similarly, five buses are running between Bhubaneswar and Puri. By the end of this month, the number is, however, expected to go up to 15. Therefore, we will ultimately run all the 125 buses as per the plan for the city bus service under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). With 90 buses pressed into service, bus companies will have to provide 35 more buses to make the fleet fully equipped,” said chief operating officer of Dream Team Sahara, Sudhanshu Jena.