THE BLOCKED HIGHWAY AND CARFARE RISE

By Nisha Chettri (TNI Kalimpong) ~ Edited By Pradiptamay Saha (TNI Siliguri)

Webdesk, TNI Kalimpong, 01st July, 2015: Dozens of people standing in front of the syndicates to get their ticket done for Siliguri despite the continuous update of the national highway blockade is an evidence that people have to travel down to the plains for any general reasons. Although they leave Kalimpong a day prior to their tickets, they get stuck down in Swetijhora for unexpected hours which compels them to take another route but Kalimpong’s private and government syndicates in the other hand have started doubling the fare. The temporal closure of NH-10 is creating hassles here and the people have started paying double for they have to reach New Jalpaiguri or Bagdogra before they miss their flight or train. In absence of the depot in-charge, Suren Kumar Darnal an inspector of NBSTC acting in response to this journalist’s question said that the regular fare from Kalimpong to Siliguri was 95 rupees which was charged when taken Teesta’s route, ‘If it’s a compulsion for the passengers to go to Siliguri, we take them through an alternative route i.e via Lava and it takes 190 rupees’ said Darnal. Similarly, Sanjay Sharma, a staff of KBKKS which is a private transporting syndicate said that their normal bus fare is 100 rupees when plied from Teesta and 200 rupees when they take Lava’s route, ‘it takes 6 hours from lava to reach Siliguri so 200 rupees is justified’ added Sharma. However, a comparable explanation of the ‘multiplied kilometers’ were given for a reason of doubled fare when the reporters asked each staff’s of Kalimpong Bus Karmachari Kalyan Sangathan (KBKKS), North Bengal State Transport Corporation (NBSTC) and Kalimpong Mainline Taxi Drivers Welfare Association (KMTDWA) in the afternoon.

Photo: Nisha Chettri (TNI)