Defunct buses at the terminal at Master Canteen Square in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 5: Even as the state government is demanding more city buses under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme, the Bhubaneswar-Puri Transport Services Limited (BPTSL) authorities are yet to operate 20 buses that have been lying idle for four months.

Under JNNURM, the state has been provided with 125 city buses. However, out of these just 105 — 70 in Bhubaneswar, 20 to Cuttack, 10 to Khurda and five to Puri — are plying at present.

Though BPTSL had decided to run the surplus 20 buses to Puri, delay in providing the origin and destination terminals has been a problem.

“The original plan was to ply 25 buses to Puri and Konark. But the Puri district administration is yet to build the infrastructure needed for city bus service,” said a senior official of BPTSL. Tourists and daily commuters feel that the authorities should run more buses outside Bhubaneswar.

“The city bus service has been restricted mainly to Bhubaneswar. Only five buses ply to Puri, which is inadequate. The authorities must provide more buses to Puri,” said Satyabrata Sahani, who works at a private organisation in Puri. Officials of Dream Team Sahara (DTS), the private operator of city buses, also said that they were incurring losses because of lack of proper infrastructure in Puri.

“We have not been provided with origin and destination terminals in Puri. We are incurring losses as we are forced to return with empty buses to Bhubaneswar for night halt,” said Nishikant Mishra, chairman of DTS. Last month, the central government had sanctioned around Rs 3.4 crore to purchase 15 more buses to the state under JNNURM. However, the authorities of BPTSL requested to procure 15 small buses instead of big buses.

Anant Narayan Jena, chairman of BPTSL and city mayor, said the matter would be sorted out at the meeting of the BPTSL.