Public transport system in Athagarh is in a bad shape. Due to negligence by the State transport authority and the local administration, the commuters are facing enormous difficulties.
About 60 buses ply in the Bhubaneswar-Narasinghpur, Cuttack-Narasinghpur and Bhubaneswar-Angul via Mundali etc through Athagarh carrying overloaded passengers. No-fit conditioned buses ply on the route throwing all rules into wind.
Since there is no regular checking by the transport authority thanks to under the table monetary transactions, the owners of these buses continue their daily businesses as usual contravening all guidelines of the department.
The gateway to Athagarh, the Government bus stand here, is in dilapidated condition. Some months ago, most of the bus owners did not halt their buses due to their vested interests, but when the local administration interfered in the matter, they are now willy-nilly entering their buses here.
The Bus Owners’ Association is divided into different groups here and the powerful group is using the bus stop as their garage, keeping their broken buses. In the bus stand, no basic facilities like provision of drinking water, urinals and toilets are available. As no lighting facility is provided, no commuter comes here to board bus, for which during the evening period, no buses also come inside this stand.
Taking the opportunity, drunkards and vagabonds make the bus stand premises their safe haven at night.
This apart, vendors selling foods and drinks make the premises dirty by throwing non-disposable plates, cups etc. and no regular cleaning is made by the local NAC here.
Even the OSRTC buses do not enter in the stand and rather prefer to halt at the main roadside.
The only express bus from Nayagarh to Rourkela through this route halts at the old bus stand where the passengers are facing difficulties in attending the call of nature.
The provision of city buses to Athagarh from Cuttack under AMRUT scheme was scheduled at least two years back and four buses were purchased by the Urban Development Department for the reason.
But due to political influence by some bus owners having nexus with the local political leaders, the schedule was cancelled.