A longstanding demand for plying buses from Cuttack to Athagarh via Madhusudan bridge and Mundali bridge has been fulfilled after intervention of local MLA Ranendra Pratap Swain. The lobby of the Private Bus Owners’ Association here had managed to keep the route under its monopoly.
When the Cuttack Municipality wanted to ply the city bus service to Athagarh and Banki, three years ago, only Banki was able to get it.
Some unscrupulous bus owners had exercised lobby not to let the service extended to Athagarh. When last year Madhusudan bridge was inaugurated making Athagarh at least 25 km shorter in distance to Cuttack, a demand for using the route was raised by the Athagarh Press Club, two months back by sitting in dharna before the Office of the Sub-Collector here. The union had presented a memorandum to Cuttack Collector Arvind Agarwal to ply buses via Madhusudan bridge soon. When it was delayed, a team of scribes from Athagarh met the Collector and the RTO.
Agarwal ordered to launch private bus service from Athagarh to Cuttack via Madhusudan bridge which started from January 26. MLA Swain flagged off the running of the buses. Meanwhile, locals have praised efforts of Press Club.