SHILLONG, Jan 30: Nine months after it was made operational, the Shillong Inter-State Bus Terminus (ISBT) is dying a slow death. The bus operators say so.
These operators and other stakeholders fear the ISBT could become a graveyard if the state government does not take drastic decisions to streamline the services.
Many operators have stopped using the ISBT and new operators have refrained from filling the vacuum in the past few months.
“Some 15-20 buses, mostly the old ones, operate from the ISBT today compared to 25-30 per day initially,” a bus operator said, declining to be quoted.
The operators said the ISBT has been hardest hit by the lack of adequate ferry services to and from Shillong. “Only a couple of buses, including a government-owned one, ferry passengers,” an operator said.
Cabbies overcharging for operating between the ISBT at Mawiong and the city’s Lumdiengjri has not helped either, although local taxis drop incoming passengers in the morning at Police Bazar for Rs 100 per head, the operators said.
A maximum of four passengers is allowed per cab.
“The government has just built the infrastructure but does not seem interested in operating and sustaining the ISBT,” an operator said.
The drop in the number of passengers because of fewer buses has affected the business of the shops at the ISBT. Many shop operators are somehow managing to pay the rent to the Meghalaya Transport Corporation, not sure how long they can continue.
Among the problems faced at the ISBT is that of water supply. The toilets often do not have enough water.
Passengers have also complained about the lack of mobile phone charging points at the ISBT.
