Ahead of Chhat Puja, Jharkhand govt allows inter-state bus services to resume

 After allowing private buses to operate only intra-state at 50% capacity for the past few months, the state government on Thursday night allowed bus owners to ply their vehicles inter-state at full capacity. The decision comes just days ahead of Chhat Puja when Biharis living in Jharkhand make a beeline for the neighbouring state and book trains and buses months in advance. Currently, only one Bihar-bound passenger train (Tatanagar-Chhapra Express) operates from Jamshedpur, so resumption of inter-state bus services will prove to be a boon for them.
“Ever since bus services resumed from September, the commuters, in anticipation that inter-state services will resume soon, would ask us about advance bookings, particularly for Bihar,” Jamshedpur Bus Operators’ Association (JBOA) functionary Upendra Kumar Sharma said on Friday.

“In the pre-Covid days, we would ferry around 22,000 passengers to three states — Odisha, Bengal and Bihar – during the festive season and 70% of them travelled to the neighbouring state,” he added.
Steel City resident D K Jha (53), who works at a private firm, was elated upon hearing that now he can travel to Bihar for Chhat and he plans to book his ticket to Motihari soon. He, however, is wary of operators following the safety norms now that buses will ply at full capacity. “Resumption of inter-state bus services ahead of Chhat Puja is indeed a good news but I need to see how sincerely the operators will comply with the Covid norms while plying their vehicles at full capacity,” he said.