Bhubaneswar, April 15: The state tourism department has written to the city bus service operators, requesting them to spare some of their smaller buses to ferry tourists to and from the Dhauli hilltop, where the famous peace pagoda is located.

Following an accident at the site on October 9 last year, in which an engineer from Bengal was killed, the state government had proposed parking of all tourist buses on the foothills.

A day after the mishap, tourism minister Ashok Chandra Panda had announced that only battery-operated vehicles would be allowed to go to the hilltop to reduce accidents. He had also suggested introduction of ropeway to take tourists from the foothill and vice-versa.

In a letter to the Dream Team Shahara, the tourism department suggested that big buses carrying tourists would halt near the foothill, and the small buses would then ferry them atop the famous monument.

The Dream Team Shahara has three types of buses - big, small and the air-conditioned ones with a seating capacity of 40, 30 and 35, respectively.

City tourist officer Sashank Rath told The Telegraph: "There was a proposal to run battery-operated vehicles to ferry visitors from the foothill to the pagoda, but it was later realised that the vehicles might not be sturdy enough to take on the journey on the slopes of Dhauli."

The department has also requested the bus service operators to include Dhauli on their route as several city buses are running up to Balakati on the city outskirts.

Chief executive officer of the service provider Sudhanshu Jena said: "We have received a letter from the tourism department, but as we are only an operator and cannot do anything without an order from Bhubaneswar Puri Transport Services Limited, we have forwarded the letter to the company. We will do according to its directions."

Bhubaneswar Puri Transport Services Limited is the state-owned company to manage city bus service in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Puri. Its general manager Jagabandhu Sahu said: "We have received a letter from the Dream Team Shahara and will put it before the appropriate forum for discussion."

On the other hand, accidents have become a regular affair near Dhauli. On February 15, 2012, a tourist bus from Bengal met with an accident, in which all the 60 on board received minor injuries.

Again on February 7 in the same year, a bus with visitors from Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh broke had fallen into a 15ft ditch near the pagoda.