A sprawling bus terminus opened on Thursday in Howrah's Santragachhi can only serve its purpose of replacing a similar facility in Babughat after two flyovers are built across Kona Expressway, transport department officials said.
"The flyovers are a must to avoid snarls on the Expressway once buses that use the Babughat terminus are shifted to Santragachhi," an official of the department said.
"The buses leaving or headed for the Santragachhi terminus, off the Expressway, will use the flyovers and not have to ply down the artery. The Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners has drawn up a proposal for the two flyovers. Unless they are ready, unlikely to be in the next few months, the Babughat terminus cannot shift to Santragachhi."
The high court had on September 28, 2007, ordered the state government to remove the Babughat and Esplanade bus terminuses to protect the Victoria Memorial from air pollution.
About 280 buses that ply in and around the city and several hundred long-distance buses operate out of the Babughat and Esplanade terminuses. Even if half of them shift to Santragachhi before the flyovers are ready, Kona Expressway will be choked.
The transport department has not set a deadline for the bus operators to shift to the new terminus.
The bus terminus, spread across 12.38 acres, can accommodate over 150 buses, and more than 80 two-wheelers and 90 other vehicles. "The capacity is around double than that of the Babughat terminus," an official said.
"The terminus will have passenger waiting rooms, canteens, shopping centres and washrooms."
Insiders at Nabanna said the inauguration was hurried after Mamata Banerjee reportedly expressed her displeasure at the pace of the project during a recent administrative meeting in Howrah.
"Most of the long-distance buses of the CTC, CSTC and WBSTC leaving for districts will operate out of the new terminus. But it may not be immediately possible to force all long-distance private buses terminating at Babughat to shift to Santragachhi," an officer at Nabanna said. "A few buses are fine but not all at this stage."
Officials said some more time would be required before all the buses are shifted out of the Esplanade and Babughat terminuses.
"We have taken a 4.5-acre plot on Hyde Road in Kidderpore from Calcutta Port Trust for building a terminus. A weigh-bridge has to be shifted before work can start," an official said. "We have also planned a few smaller terminuses in New Town and Garia but they would take some time to be functional."
Sources said work on another bus stand in New Town - three-storeyed, spread across 10 acres - has progressed with the detailed project report being finally ready. Representatives of the transport department and Hidco have attended two presentations on the proposed bus stand. "The next step will be floating an expression of interest for the job," the official said.
Before buses can shift to a new terminus - be it in Santragachhi, Kidderpore or New Town - their permit will have to be altered to allow a change in route, another official pointed out.
"If a bus that plies till Babughat has to travel till Santragachhi, its permit must be changed. Changing the permit of scores of buses will take time," the official said.