A bus driver in his late 50s was found dead inside his bus in Dhakuria on Thursday morning amid a suspicion of suicide at a time lockdowns and dwindling passengers have devastated the public transport industry.

Like many private buses in Calcutta, the bus that Ranjit Das drove had been off the roads since May — first because of pandemic restrictions and later because it didn’t offer viable business to the owner any more.

This apparently left the unmarried Ranjit unable to meet the living expenses of his extended family, his employer said.

Ranjit had been idle and unpaid since May when the Bengal government stopped public transport to deal with a surge in Covid infections. He didn’t earn anything even after the restrictions were withdrawn from July 1.

Most bus owners have decided not to resume service, arguing the government’s restriction of passenger occupancy to 50 per cent of capacity and a simultaneous refusal to hike fares had made the business unprofitable.

A few bus owners have hiked fares without government approval.

Like hundreds of other private bus drivers, Ranjit struggled to send money to his family — his elder brother, sister-in-law and nephew — at Rajpur, South 24-Parganas.

He would spend his nights inside the bus that he once used to drive on the Dhakuria-Howrah route, his employer Somnath Dutta said.

Ranjit had been the family’s sole breadwinner since his elder brother lost his job during the pandemic.

A private bus driver for over 12 years, Ranjit had six months ago taken up employment with Dutta, driving one of his three buses.

“On Wednesday, he asked for Rs 500 and I gave it to him. He used to call me bhaipo (nephew),” Dutta said.

“I had arranged for him to have his lunch every day at a local roadside eatery. But possibly he had pressing demands back home.”

Ranjit’s colleagues spotted him lying inside the bus near Dhakuria bridge and informed Dutta. The police later took the body away for a post-mortem.

“This appears a suicide. The post-mortem report will specify the cause of death,” an officer at Lake police station said.

Several bus drivers said that like Ranjit, they had not been at the wheel for a long time, either.

“Our employers are unsure (when they might resume plying buses). Will the government allow a fare hike? Will passengers agree to pay enhanced fares?” Alok Mondal said.

Private bus drivers like Ranjit have no fixed salaries, their income being a proportion of the day’s sales.

“Several bus owners had tried to pay small amounts to the drivers and conductors but most have stopped doing so now. The owners haven’t got the money to pay for anything, not even their EMIs,” said Tapan Bandyopadhyay of the Joint Council of Bus Syndicates.