Bhubaneswar: The Odisha State Road Transport Corporation (OSRTCC) which had halted bus services due to the COVID-induced lockdown in the state, has announced to resume buses services on 43 routes from July 6 (Tuesday). The buses will run from 16 depots of the Corporation.
The buses will operate with strict adherence to COVID guidelines like mandatory face masks when traveling.
In Category-A districts, which have been segregated as per the number of COVID cases, inter-district and inter-district buses will run only with seating capacity. No passengers will be allowed to stand. Disinfection and sanitization will be done by OSRTC.
Announcing this, OSRTC CMD Diptesh Pattanayak requested the people to maintain social distance and not crowd the vehicles.
Meanwhile, online booking for advance tickets has started from July 3 in Berhampur from where 6 buses will start from the City Bus Stand after a gap of two months, said sources in the office of Berhampur zone of OSRTC.
“Though 24 OSRTC buses were plying in Berhampur zone earlier we have decided to run only six buses in the first phase as Ganjam has been, included in the Category-A districts list and the state government has relaxed restriction on the movement of buses in these Category-A districts,” said a senior officer of OSRTC.
The six buses would run from Berhampur to Balimela, Umerkote and Bandhabahal routes. However, the buses on all other routes would run in phases.