Several buses were found to be parked along the Bhuiyadih Main Road on Friday, congesting traffic on the busy artery, after dismantling of the boundary wall of the Sitaramdera bus terminus for widening of four-lane began.

The widening work would require the existing wall to be pushed 10m back, causing a space crunch at the terminus spread over 1.5 acres of land in Sitaramdera, leading the buses to be parked on both sides of the road.

Around 500 buses carry more than 30,000 passengers daily to various destinations in Jharkhand, Bihar, Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha from Sitaramdera, the only inter-state bus terminus in the steel city.

“We faced problems due to traffic congestion along this route as buses are parked on both sides of the road,” said Shivam Sahu, a resident of Sidhgora. “I had to drop my uncle for a bus to Muzzafarpur, Bihar, this (Friday) afternoon on a bike. There was not much space inside the terminus and most of the buses were found outside.”

Bus operators admitted the problem but expressed helplessness. “We have to hear complaints from passengers but we can’t really help,” said Uday Sharma, president of the Jamshedpur Bus Owners Association (JBOA), an umbrella body of long-distance bus operators.

“We had approached the deputy commissioner in December last year when we received intimation from Jusco (Tata Steel’s utility arm, now Tata Steel Utilities and Infrastructure Services Limited) about dismantling of the boundary wall for road widening. We raised the issue of space crunch if the boundary walls are pushed back. We had also informed Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (JNAC) which looks after the maintenance of the bus terminus. “Today (Friday), the Jusco officials informed that they will hold a meeting on Monday to address our problems,” said Sharma.

The bus operators have suggested that an open drain flowing at the rear side of the terminus could be covered and the space handed over to the association. It would compensate for the space taken up for road widening work.

Currently, the Bhuiyadih Main Road is a double-lane road linking Mango with Agrico via Bhuiyadih. Tata Steel plans to make the stretch four-lane which would make each side of the road between 8.5m and 10.5m with a central verge 2.5 feet wide.

JNAC special officer Krishna Kumar confirmed about the Monday meeting between Tata Steel and the bus operators to sort out the issue.