The State Transport Department and the Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco) have come up with a plan to jointly set up a plush international bus terminus at Rajarhat New Town, the first of its kind in West Bengal. A 10-acre plot off the Rajarhat main arterial road in Action Area-II has been identified for the purpose. The plot is close to both the city airport and IT hub and the central business district of Rajarhat.
A committee of experts formed for the purpose will visit Chennai and Bangalore to have a look at the bus terminus projects there and give specifications of the models that will be followed in the State.
Though Hidco has been working to set up a few bus terminuses in the township, an international bus terminus has been lacking so far. Hidco has been keeping in touch with the State Transport Department to discuss ways in which the state-of-the-art designer bus terminus could be set up. The posh terminus will boast of cafes, rest rooms and services for inter-city, inter-State and international bus routes that will be operated from there.
At present, there is only one international bus terminus in the State which is located at Salt Lake’s Karunamoyee from where Kolkata to Dhaka bus services operate.
A meeting was recently held between the Transport Department Secretary, Mr. Alapan Bandyopadhaya, and the Hidco Chairman, Mr. Debashis Sen, who is also the State Urban Development Secretary, along with officials of CSTC, WBSTC and CTC, to discuss the plan.
Hidco also wants to introduce an intelligent transport system (ITS) in Rajarhat New Town as a pilot scheme to develop it as a futuristic township.
There has been persistent demand from residents of the township for development of the transport system at the earliest. The State Transport Department issued two new bus route permits for the township a few months ago in which Hidco will run 20 JNNURM buses on the two routes. For the buses to depart from and arrive on these two routes, two spots, one near Balaka Abasan in Action Area 1D and the other behind Eco Space, have been identified.