The much-propagated city bus service in Brahmapur and its adjoining NAC towns which was hanging fire since no bus operator had shown interest to ply buses even though the district authorities floated tender twice is going to be a reality from Thursday.
The first phase of the city bus service will begin for Brahmapur, Gopalpur, Chhatrapur and Hinjilikatu for which 16 buses would be provided in four routes with four of them running in Brahmapur.
This was announced by Ganjam district Collector and Chairman of GUTSl (Ganjam Urban Transport Services limited) Prem Chandra Choudhury at a Press meet here on Monday.
An agreement has been signed with the OSRTC for maintenance of the service, the permission for such is awaited from the Regional Transport Authority, he said. Besides, the GUTSl would soon determine the costs of tickets to different destinations. It may be mentioned that to meet the public demand for city bus service in this Silk City and its adjoin towns, the Government had acquired new buses since December last and kept them under the open sky near Ambapua on the outskirts of the city since then. But no operator came forward to take the deal.
The GUTSl was formed under the chairmanship of the district Collector and the other members of the SPV are the Chairman of the Brahmapur Development Authority and Chairpersons of Hinjili, Gopalpur and Chhatrapur NACs.
Presently, there is no bus service from Brahmapur to Gopalpur and Chhatrapur and passengers are depending on trekkers or matadors. The Chief Minister is likely to flag off the city bus services on Thursday.