The North Bengal State Transport Corporation (NBSTC) will introduce women’s special buses on three popular routes in the region for safer travel for women passengers, especially daily commuters.

While speaking to the media after the 234th board meeting of NBSTC, held at the state guest house in Siliguri on Thursday, Parthapratim Roy, chairman of NBSTC, said: “We will introduce the ladies’ special buses ahead of the Durga Puja. These buses will run in Siliguri-Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar-Alipurduar and Cooch Behar-Dinhata routes and will be operated by women staff. In due course, the service will be introduced in some other routes.”

Roy mentioned that before the upcoming festive season, they will introduce 12 more rocket service buses in Siliguri-Calcutta and Cooch Behar-Calcutta routes.

“We have got some new buses which will be launched on these two routes to cater to the extra rush of passengers during the festivities. There is a plan to start these new bus services from Siliguri on September 18,” he added.

As of now, nine rocket service buses of NBSTC connect Calcutta with different parts of north Bengal. The new buses to be launched next week have 35 seats, in-built CCTV cameras and vehicle location tracking devices (VLTD).