Tanmay Mondal
IIM graduate, Batch of 2014
The transport sector is an important component of the economy impacting the development and the welfare of the people. The West Bengal Government in last 34 months has taken several measures to improve the infrastructure of the transport department, resulting in continuous improvement in revenue generation.
Administrative re-expansion and reform of the Transport Department
(i) For the benefit of common people and also with the view for decentralisation and speedy disposal of works, two new offices of Public Vehicles Department (PVD) have been opened at Salt lake & Kasba. With the same objective, a new motor vehicle office has been opened in each of the 18 sub-divisions across Bengal.
(ii) New branch offices of State Transport Authority, with the aim to speed up the works in 6 districts of North Bengal, have been opened. The tasks mentioned below can be done in these offices; there will be no need to visit the state level offices:
• National permit (Goods carriage)
• Temporary permit (Goods carriage)
• State contract carriage permit -up to 3 districts
• All Bengal carriage permit (only for transportation of tourists)
(iii) An integrated and centralized council has been set up for the management of CSTC, CTC & WBSTC
(iv) Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) has been initiated for the employees of State Transport Corporations and in the first phase 850 employees of 4 State Transport Corporations have been included in the scheme
(v) Neutral & open-tender system has been started with the view to increase financial revenues and for the holistic usage of unused lands of State Transport Corporations
Bus-Tram services
• More than thousand permits of Buses and Mini-buses have been issued and these have been done with the introduction of an easy and hassle-free system of issuing permits
• More than a hundred Bus-services have been started under State Transport Corporations in new routes
• Corporate AC Bus-services have been started in many long-distance routes
• With the financial assistance of JNNURM, 632 new Bus-services in Kolkata Metropolitan areas, 80 in Asansol-Durgapur areas and 140 in Siliguri-Jalpaiguri areas have been started
• AC tram-services have been started in traditional routes
Taxi Services
• Taxi permits for 4000 `No refusal` AC and non-AC new taxis are being issued in Kolkata Metropolitan areas
• Pre-paid taxi service has been started from Railway stations of Kolkata, Howrah, Sealdah & Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport.
Air Services
• Regular Helicopter-services have been started between Kolkata and Gangasagar, Bolpur and Santiniketan and from Durgapur, Malda and Balurghat. Facility for pleasure trips on air are also on offer. For this, Pawan Hans Ltd, an India Govt. undertaking, has been appointed on contract basis to make the services available.
• State Govt. has been providing assistance in many ways to Airports authority of India for the restoration of the regular Air-services between Kolkata & Cooch Behar again; it is also constructing a new culvert on Mora- Torsha to facilitate landing of heavy aero-planes.
• Government has allowed tax-concessions to help more aero-planes taking flights from Bagdogra, Cooch Behar & Durgapur, State Govt. will not impose taxes if they avail of turbine fuels from these three airports.
Inland Waterways services
• New launch services have been started on the Shree Ramakrishna-Ma Sarada-Vivekananda heritage route
• Pleasure trips or river Hooghly
• Cargo movement through waterways between South 24 Paraganas & East Medinipur
• New ferry service on PPP model on river Ganga - for this additional 06 launches have been brought
Transport infrastructure
• Flyover between Nagerbazer and Dum Dum is now open
• A ramp has been constructed to descend on AJC Bose Road
• Necessary fund has been allotted to construct 14 jetties and for renovation & development of these jetties
• Fund has been sanctioned for construction of 29 Bus-stands and terminuses and also for renovation and development of these
• Necessary fund has been sanctioned for the construction of Bus-stands in districts
Revenue
• Generation of revenues from transport sector is on the rise for succeeding years now. Revenue generation for the financial year 2011-12 was Rs 986.04 crore, which is 7.5% higher than the previous year.
• It has gone up even further to Rs 1192.11 crore in the year 2012-13, which is 21% higher than the last year
• For the year 2013-14, the revenue earning has been Rs 993.68 crore till the month of December, which is 17.5% higher than the amount earned till the same period of the previous year.
IIM graduate, Batch of 2014
The transport sector is an important component of the economy impacting the development and the welfare of the people. The West Bengal Government in last 34 months has taken several measures to improve the infrastructure of the transport department, resulting in continuous improvement in revenue generation.
Administrative re-expansion and reform of the Transport Department
(i) For the benefit of common people and also with the view for decentralisation and speedy disposal of works, two new offices of Public Vehicles Department (PVD) have been opened at Salt lake & Kasba. With the same objective, a new motor vehicle office has been opened in each of the 18 sub-divisions across Bengal.
(ii) New branch offices of State Transport Authority, with the aim to speed up the works in 6 districts of North Bengal, have been opened. The tasks mentioned below can be done in these offices; there will be no need to visit the state level offices:
• National permit (Goods carriage)
• Temporary permit (Goods carriage)
• State contract carriage permit -up to 3 districts
• All Bengal carriage permit (only for transportation of tourists)
(iii) An integrated and centralized council has been set up for the management of CSTC, CTC & WBSTC
(iv) Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) has been initiated for the employees of State Transport Corporations and in the first phase 850 employees of 4 State Transport Corporations have been included in the scheme
(v) Neutral & open-tender system has been started with the view to increase financial revenues and for the holistic usage of unused lands of State Transport Corporations
Bus-Tram services
• More than thousand permits of Buses and Mini-buses have been issued and these have been done with the introduction of an easy and hassle-free system of issuing permits
• More than a hundred Bus-services have been started under State Transport Corporations in new routes
• Corporate AC Bus-services have been started in many long-distance routes
• With the financial assistance of JNNURM, 632 new Bus-services in Kolkata Metropolitan areas, 80 in Asansol-Durgapur areas and 140 in Siliguri-Jalpaiguri areas have been started
• AC tram-services have been started in traditional routes
Taxi Services
• Taxi permits for 4000 `No refusal` AC and non-AC new taxis are being issued in Kolkata Metropolitan areas
• Pre-paid taxi service has been started from Railway stations of Kolkata, Howrah, Sealdah & Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport.
Air Services
• Regular Helicopter-services have been started between Kolkata and Gangasagar, Bolpur and Santiniketan and from Durgapur, Malda and Balurghat. Facility for pleasure trips on air are also on offer. For this, Pawan Hans Ltd, an India Govt. undertaking, has been appointed on contract basis to make the services available.
• State Govt. has been providing assistance in many ways to Airports authority of India for the restoration of the regular Air-services between Kolkata & Cooch Behar again; it is also constructing a new culvert on Mora- Torsha to facilitate landing of heavy aero-planes.
• Government has allowed tax-concessions to help more aero-planes taking flights from Bagdogra, Cooch Behar & Durgapur, State Govt. will not impose taxes if they avail of turbine fuels from these three airports.
Inland Waterways services
• New launch services have been started on the Shree Ramakrishna-Ma Sarada-Vivekananda heritage route
• Pleasure trips or river Hooghly
• Cargo movement through waterways between South 24 Paraganas & East Medinipur
• New ferry service on PPP model on river Ganga - for this additional 06 launches have been brought
Transport infrastructure
• Flyover between Nagerbazer and Dum Dum is now open
• A ramp has been constructed to descend on AJC Bose Road
• Necessary fund has been allotted to construct 14 jetties and for renovation & development of these jetties
• Fund has been sanctioned for construction of 29 Bus-stands and terminuses and also for renovation and development of these
• Necessary fund has been sanctioned for the construction of Bus-stands in districts
Revenue
• Generation of revenues from transport sector is on the rise for succeeding years now. Revenue generation for the financial year 2011-12 was Rs 986.04 crore, which is 7.5% higher than the previous year.
• It has gone up even further to Rs 1192.11 crore in the year 2012-13, which is 21% higher than the last year
• For the year 2013-14, the revenue earning has been Rs 993.68 crore till the month of December, which is 17.5% higher than the amount earned till the same period of the previous year.
