Cuttack, Aug. 27: The state government has slammed the brakes on Cuttack’s plea for more city buses. The government today expressed its inability before the Orissa High Court to provide 10 more buses to add to the city fleet.

In an affidavit, the state government said that 20 buses had been provided to Cuttack by diverting 10 buses each from those deployed in Bhubaneswar and Puri under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme.

At this stage, the government is also unable to deploy the required number of buses in Puri. However, 10 standard buses will be deployed in the existing routes in Bhubaneswar.

“In view of the circumstances, it may not be possible to divert any more buses to Cuttack city,” Injeti Srinivas, principal secretary of the department of housing and urban development, said in the affidavit.

“Taking note of it, the division bench of Justices B.P. Das and M.M. Das today directed the standing counsel of state transport department to file an affidavit giving details of the number of buses allotted by the Centre under the JNNURM scheme, the number of city buses that had been deployed and the routes on which permits had been granted,” traffic and transport management committee member P.K. Panda told The Telegraph.

On May 16, the high court had directed the state government to deploy 10 buses in route number 3 within three weeks.

On July 30, when the court’s attention was drawn to a media report that said no extra buses could be provided to Cuttack, the secretary of housing and urban development was directed to file an affidavit in this regard.

Private bus operator Dream Team Sahara is running the city bus service in a public-private-partnership mode under an MoU signed with the Bhubaneswar-Puri Transport Services Limited. At present, 20 buses run between the twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.

The court had issued the order after members of the bar pointed out that 10 buses were not being used and sought direction for using the idle buses in route number 3.

Though three routes were finalised by the traffic and transport management committee constituted by the high court, all the 20 buses are being run in two routes to increase frequency between arrival and departure of the vehicles from one stop to the other and decrease waiting period for commuters, the operators have said.

The city bus service to Cuttack was started following intervention of the high court on a public interest litigation filed by social activist Chittaranjan Mohanty.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had flagged off the DTS city bus service in Cuttack on May 16 last year. The government had then provided 10 buses under the JNNURM scheme. Later, five buses were added to the fleet in July and five more in September.