If you have enjoyed Ram and Shyam, and Seeta and Geeta on the screen, watch out for identical twins on the Domkal-Calcutta route.

Two private buses with identical colour, name, registration number and more ply on the route with state transport authorities and cops of four districts, including Calcutta, seemingly unaware of it.

The similarities remained “unnoticed” till a few passengers saw the two vehicles parked side by side on Wednesday at Nadia’s Karimpur bus stand.

They pointed out to the cops that the similarities went beyond the colour, name and route of the two vehicles. The commuters spotted what police and transport department authorities apparently did not see for years — the registration number of the two buses were the same.

A cop on duty took up the matter with seniors at Karimpur police station. The two vehicles were not seized as they were carrying Trinamul supporters to chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s meeting in Krishnagar on Wednesday.

“We were not in a position to seize them. This is a matter for road transport authorities,” inspector-in-charge of Karimpur police station Pintu Sarkar said.

Asked if any case had been lodged and if the RTA was told, Sarkar replied in the negative.

Police sources in Karimpur said the registration number had been issued from Murshidabad and cops here did not want to meddle.

“Both the buses originate from Murshidabad’s Domkal and cross two more districts — Nadia and North 24-Parganas — to reach Esplanade in Calcutta around 228km away. The authorities in four districts could not spot two buses with the same registration number — WB 57C 5858 — on the same route,” said a commuter in Karimpur.

Sources said one of the buses is 18 years old. According to a 2008 order of Calcutta High Court, commercial vehicles over 15 years cannot operate so as to reduce air pollution in Calcutta and Howrah.

Since the older bus violated the high court order and kept plying between Domkal and Esplanade, police in Calcutta had been penalising it.

Sources in Karimpur police said that to get around frequent fines, the owner of the two buses, Sujoy Rakshit, planned a makeover of the older one and turned it into an identical twin of the “younger bus” to escape cop scan.

Karimpur resident Rakshit claimed he did not ply the older bus to Calcutta. “I don’t know how it was parked at the Karimpur bus stand,” he told The Telegraph.