HI-TECH BUSES FOR N BENGAL

HT, 4 October 2016, SILIGURI: North Bengal State Transport Corporation (NBSTC) on Tuesday launched 30 new buses on different routes taking the total number of vehicles under the state government’s transport authority to 591. The buses are fitted with GPRS system and CCTV cameras.
State transport minister Suvendu Adhikari, tourism minister Goutam Deb, North Bengal development minister Rabindranath Ghosh, forest minister Binoy Krishna Barman and tribal welfare minister Jamesh Kujur, flagged off the buses in a programme at Matigara. The ministers also inaugurated the NBSTC’s HRD centre. The NBSTC which is still a loss making transport corporation purchased 345 new buses since 2011 when the Trinamool Congress came to power. This year 70 new buses would be purchased out of which 30 manufactured by Mahindra and Mahindra have already arrived, said Subal Roy, MD of NBSTC.
Addressing the programme, Suvendu Adhikari said a total of 255 buses would be purchased this year by different transport corporations. He also announced that Rs 15 crore would be spent to upgrade and modernise Tenzing Norgay central bus terminus in Siliguri.
Adikari and Ghosh handed over 1.18 acre of land to the Airport Authority of India for the installation of instrumental landing system (ILS) at Bagdogra Airport. The land was purchased by the state government from 41 people at the cost of Rs 2.40 crore and handed over the AAI.