Problem description

Bainan is a not-so remote village situated at 60 km north of Kolkata. The nearest railway station is Bagnan which is 5km away from Bainan. For a long time, the only conveyance available to reach Bainan from Bagnan was bus. And bus-walas never cared for the passengers. Recently-from around 1995-autoricksaws and treckers (which are nothing but Mahnidra jeeps) have entered into the market. From around the end of 2004, bus owners are facing stiff competition from these two alternatives.

A Trecker

Buses, like the autos and treckers, are privately owned. A bus can carry 50-60 people when an auto can carry 8-9 people. A trecker can carry around 20 people. The route for the trecker is a little different. There are 2-3 neighbouring villages on the Bainan - Narit road and the trecker takes the Narit-Bainan-Bagnan route and does cater to some more passengers.

An Auto

Now the situation is such that almost nobody uses bus service. The used-to-be-overloaded bus now goes empty, even waits at bus-stands till it gets one or two passengers.

When asked, people of Bainan said that a bus ticket costs 4.5 rupees when an auto costs 5 rupees. People these days doesnt care for this much difference. Every half an hour you get a bus while autos and treckers doesnt have any fixed time. But in all probabilities you are going to see atleast two autos in 15 minutes and 2 treckers in 25 minutes. Besides buses are irregular.

Some more suggestions we got

1. Buses are not profitable in short distance route.
2. Why dont they start bus service till narit? it requires a permit

Please suggest some measures to revitalize the bus service in this route.