Kolkata, Feb 29 (PTI) Five private bus operators organisations in West Bengal on Thursday called for a three-day shutdown of services in the middle of March to press for their demand for an extension of the 15-year deadline for scrapping diesel commercial vehicles.

General Secretary of West Bengal Bus and Minibus Owners' Association Pradip Narayan Bose said public transport facilities would be withdrawn in the state between March 18 and 20.

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The operators demanded that the tenure of stage carriages, which are set to cross the 15-year time frame by 2024, be extended by another two years immediately.

"We have made a justified demand as our buses were mostly off the roads due to the Covid situation and lockdown during a greater phase of 2020-2022 and both employees and owners went through serious financial crisis," Tapan Bandyopadhyay of Joint Council of Bus Syndicate said on Wednesday.

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Bose claimed that representatives of the bus operators went to the transport department office during the day after giving notice, but neither the minister nor any other senior official were present to hear their views.

"We have still given them time till March 15 to think about our just demands which is vital for the revival of the private transport sector that is in ICU, especially after Covid," he said.

Bose said almost the entire fleet of the around 5,500 private buses and minibuses plying in Kolkata and its neighbourhood and Howrah will be off the roads in a year starting July 2024, if the two-year extension is not given.

In that case, around 5 lakh transport workers would be jobless, he said.

The Joint Council of Bus Syndicate official said, "Even two-three years back 7,500-8,000 buses and 1,500 mini buses used to ply in the city", he said.

"We don't have the wherewithal to cough up Rs 32-35 lakh to buy new vehicles with Bharat Stage 6 emission norms," Bandyopadhyay said.

A transport official said the 15-year deadline for old vehicles is the call of the high court to minimise pollution, and though the department is sympathetic to the bus operators, it cannot extend the deadline on its own.

"We had given them financial help during the time of Covid-19 and lockdown to tide over the crisis," the official added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)