NBSTC to step into joint ventures

 

COOCH BEHAR, Nov. 5: The North Bengal State Transport Corporation (NBSTC) will hand over its 29-bigha of land in Krishnagar to the district administration concerned. In lieu of that it will get 4-bigha of land beside National Highway. Presently, animal resources development department possesses this land. Considering the volume of lands the transaction may sound as abnormal but the deal will be good for the NBSTC because the position of the land beside National Highway is much better than that stretch of land it is going to hand over, believes the managing director of NBSTC, Md Saheb Ali Miah.

 

In a bid to boost up its income and use its vacant and unused lands for the purpose the NBSTC is moving forward to enter into joint ventures with business houses like Reliance. Under the proposed joint venture modern bus terminuses with passenger amenities, residential housing estates, commercial stalls and markets will come up on the till unused lands. At the beginning such initiative will be taken at Netaji Nagar in Jalpaiguri where the NBSTC has a land of 4.5 acre. On the three-acre land at Tinbatti Morh in Siliguri and also at Baharampur such joint initiatives will be initiated soon, the MD said.

 

Presently, the NBSTC has 550 buses on the road though the total number is 709. Repairing of out of order buses is being done with spare parts purchased directly from the manufacturers. Shunning of dependence on private workshops is making the situation better, the MD said. It ensures genuine spare parts and at the same time economical too. Thirty 32-seater passenger buses are also coming to replace old ones in different routes.

 

The total number of employees of this organisation is 4,900. Here, the bus-man ratio is very high than that of private operators. It is 1:11. Though the NBSTC is overburdened with staffs it has to ply buses in many routes out of social responsibility. Compared with earlier years the expenditure and salary of the employees of this organisation rose but the income was not increased with a rational ratio. It receives Rs 1.5-crore per month as dividend from sale of tickets of Rs 5-crore. The state government extends assistance of Rs 4.3-crore for payment of salary to the employees. In a bid to lessen its dependence on government subsidy the NBSTC is considering plans to take up newer initiatives to boost up its income, the managing director said. []