John Wilbert & Vikramaditya
Port Blair, Jan 19: Leakages from the roof of STS buses, broken seats, frequent breakdowns, passengers pushing STS buses to start etc are common sights in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, especially in remote Islands. Social media platforms are flooded with such videos, showing how poorly the STS buses are managed. Not only this many routes there is a heavy demand for STS buses but the Transport Department is not able to provide buses due to poor condition of buses and also due to shortage of buses.
At present, the State Transport Service here has 14 units in different Islands while the headquarter is based at Port Blair.
It is expected that the bus once inducted in STS, it will complete atleast 04 Lakh kilometres in its maximal capacity but actually many buses have crossed the 6 lakhs kilometres mark, which is the prime reason why a large number of the buses are in horrible shape.
When contacted the Secretary-Cum-Director of Transport Department, Mr. Vishwendra today said that the Department is well aware of the issue and the Department has already started work in this regard. He said that the Department of Transport has already floated a tender for 14 new buses, which will replace the ATR buses and the replaced buses will be sent to North and Middle Andaman as per the requirements.
