The travails of thousands of daily passengers including office goers, labourers and daily wage earners, continues in the coal town as city bus services remain suspended despite government restrictions being lifted.

Passengers travelling to places like, Katras, Sindri, Maithon, Chirkunda, Rajganj, Topchanchi are the worst affected as other than being compelled to pay four to five times fare in auto-rickshaw they are also compelled to make a break journey as auto rickshaws do not operate for long distance.

Suspension of local train services, including Dhanbad-Sindri passenger train and Dhanbad-Chandrapura due to the pandemic and other reasons have further added to the woes of the common passenger as they are left with no other option other than travelling in auto- rickshaw and pay exorbitant fares.

Notably, only 13 out of total 70 buses procured by DMC way back in 2010 under the millennium city project have been operational till the pre lockdown period of April 21, while remaining 57 are lying grounded due to being in extremely dilapidated condition as many of them have never came on road due to failure of DMC to operate buses.

Talking to The Telegraph Online on Friday, Ranjit Kumar Singh, a speech therapist cum special educator of Jeevan Jyoti School, a school for differently-abled students, at Dhanbad said, “My residence is in Katras and travelling from Katras to Dhanbad I am now compelled to pay Rs 60 in auto-rickshaw instead of the charge of Rs 20 of bus fare.”

“Such is the monopoly of auto drivers that they are even charging as much as Rs 80 as Katras fare from railway passengers during the weekend complete lockdown,” said Ranjit.

Echoing his sentiments, Umesh Heliwal, a garment seller of Karkend Bazar in Dhanbad, who is also secretary of Jharkhand Industries and Trade Association said, “Many of our staff as well as retailers travelling from far off places like Sindri, Baghmara, Maithon, Chirkunda are facing great difficulty in visiting us due to non operational of city bus service.”

President of Sindri Chamber of Commerce, Deepak Kumar Dipu said, "The worst sufferer of the suspension of city bus service are the Sindri residents located around 30 km from Dhanbad as auto rickshaw drivers are even charging as high as Rs 150 as Dhanbad-Sindri fare during lockdown instead of city bus fare of Rs 25 per passenger."

“We have requested the railway authorities for the restoration of Sindri Dhanbad passenger train and simultaneously a restoration request of city bus service was made to DMC authorities but all our requests have fallen into deaf's ear,” said Dipu.

Contacted, DMC Assistant Engineer, Uday Kachhap who is also the in charge of transport service of DMC, said, “All 13 buses would start operating soon as the contractors operating buses have started carrying out necessary servicing as batteries have exhausted during the over two months of lockdown period while other technical snags also developed in engine etc.”