India, July 16 -- Kolkata will now have direct premium sleeper bus connectivity to Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Puri after new Volvo 9600 coach services were launched at the Karunamoyee Bus Terminus on Wednesday. The services, introduced by Shyamoli Paribahan, were inaugurated by Transport and Labour Minister Arjun Singh in the presence of BJP state president and Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya, senior company officials and representatives of Volvo. The Kolkata-Delhi service will operate via Varanasi, Dhanbad, Asansol and Durgapur and take around 23 hours. The Kolkata-Bengaluru service will run via Visakhapatnam and Tirupati in around 35 hours, while the Kolkata-Chennai service via Tirupati will take around 30 hours. The Kolkata-Puri service is expected to take around nine hours. Also Read - ED raids in 4 states in terror funding, illegal infiltration case Addressing the programme, Singh announced that all Public Vehicles Department (PVD) services would be brought online within six months to eliminate middlemen. "Within the next six months, people will not have to approach any middleman for transport-related work. Everything will be available online without paying any extra money," he said. He said issues relating to inter-state bus operations with Sikkim had been resolved, allowing buses from West Bengal to pick up passengers there. The minister also urged operators to expand services to more religious destinations and said the government would modernise bus depots and terminals, besides tightening enforcement against illegal bus operations. "The government and the business community have to work together," he said.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.