The state transport department has submitted to Calcutta High Court minutes of a meeting where the department has suggested three “temporary” alternatives for the Esplanade bus terminus.
The three alternatives are the Santragachhi bus terminus, where 100 buses can be parked; a piece of land belonging to the Hooghly River Bridge Commissioners (HRBC) near Foreshore Road in Howrah, where 200 buses can be parked; and a piece of land belonging to the HRBC on Duke Road in Howrah’s Shibpur, where 40 buses can be parked.
The Santragachhi bus terminus, near the Santragachhi railway station, is about 10km from the heart of Kolkata. The Foreshore Road plot is about 9km from Esplanade and the Duke Road plot is about 8km from Esplanade.
The minutes of the meeting submitted to the court had the signature of the secretary of the state’s transport department, Saumitra Mohan. The Telegraph has seen a copy of the minutes of the meeting.
The high court is hearing a petition by environment activist Subhas Datta alleging
that even after the Supreme Court ordered the shifting of the bus terminus from Esplanade in December 2007, the state government has not executed it.
The high court had in September 2007 passed an order to shift the Esplanade bus terminus from its current location. The apex court had upheld the order.
In the latest petition, Datta has mentioned that the high court’s order that the bus terminus be shifted to a place beyond 3km from Victoria Memorial, was based on a report by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI).
“The three alternatives that are being explored will only be temporary alternatives till a final resolution to the matter. When a sufficiently large plot for building a terminus for long-distance buses is identified, all stakeholders have to agree. The construction will begin. But till then we need an alternative place,” said an official of the transport department.
“The buses can come to these three alternative sites and park there. They will go to Esplanade a little before their departure to pick up passengers and leave,” said the official.
The minutes of the meeting also mentioned that the secretary of the private bus operators association, Esplanade, wanted that they be allowed to park private buses in the state-owned bus terminus in Entally.
The transport department, however, said that the Entally bus terminus will be reserved for state buses that have to be shifted from the Esplanade terminus.
The private bus operators have to pay rent for using the alternative sites, according to the plan.
Datta said that the alternative sites must have toilets and other facilities for bus drivers, conductors and passengers.