The State Government has decided to run city buses to nearby towns within 50 km of the Twin City of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.
Accordingly, six city buses each will connect Athagarh to Cuttack and Banki to Cuttack. The announcement was made two months ago. local NAC authority had consented to provide halting facilities and protection to the city buses.
The city bus authorities have started running the buses from Cuttack to Banki since April but the same is yet to start in Athagarh. It is heard that some unscrupulous private bus owners here, headed by local people’ representatives, have put pressure on the city bus authority not to run their vehicles with an apprehension of business loss.
As per the present status of road communication from Athagarh, several private vehicles carrying no fitness certificates run in this route. The passengers of Athagarh are not provided seats from Cuttack and the vice versa in the Cuttack-Narsinghpur route, especially when there is rush of passengers. Over loading is a regular phenomenon. Some buses are also run by PDS kerosene which is hardly unchecked. Recently, the Athagarh Private Bus Owners’ Association called a Press meet to cite their grievances of business loss.
Meanwhile, several outfits like Athagarh Press Club, Athagarh Bikash Parishad, Athagarh Civil Society and Nagarika Mancha have demanded immediate measures to run the city buses to Athagarh.