Calcutta State Transport Corporation Maniktala Bus Depot - Kolkata 2012-01-23 8634

Calcutta State Transport Corporation (CSTC) was a

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonom ...

undertaken transport corporation. Headquartered in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, it was set up on 31 July 1948. Currently it operates under the name WBTC. It plied

buses A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

in Kolkata and nearby districts of West Bengal, along with some long-distance services. CSTC owned 11 depots in Kolkata and the districts to station its fleet of busses.

History

Calcutta State Transport Corporation started its journey on 31 July 1948 as State Transport Services with an objective to provide efficient, adequate, economical and properly coordinated passenger bus service particularly in and around the city of Kolkata and in the state of

in general. On 15 June 1960 the name of State Transport Service has changed to Calcutta State Transport Corporation (CSTC) under the Road Transport Corporation Act, 1950. By 1966, it had upgraded its services and was connected to 90 percent of the national highways. To fulfill the demand of rural passengers, CSTC introduced one of the earliest Long Distance Bus Services (LDS) from Calcutta to Digha in April 1968.

Merger with WBTC

In 2017, the

Department of Transport (West Bengal) The Department of Transport of West Bengal is a department of the Bengal government. It is responsible for the provision of transport facilities and infrastructure on road, inland water and air – within the domain of West Bengal. It also pr ...

, under Transport Minister Protik Bhattacharya merged CSTC with other transport providers such as CTC and WBSTC and to form WBTC.

Operations

Fleet

With a fleet of 782 buses, CSTC was able to set up a number of bus routes in the southern part of West Bengal which were till then not connected to any other means of transport. CSTC also pioneered the running of air-conditioned Volvo buses in Kolkata, replacing the aging fleet. Air conditioned buses were launched in July 2014 on 40 routes across the city and suburbs. They were in blue and white livery, the buses included a complete fleet of

Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...

8400 units as well as JanBus models from

Ashok Leyland Ashok Leyland is an Indian multinational automotive manufacturer, headquartered in Chennai. It is owned by the Hinduja Group. It was founded in 1948 as Ashok Motors and became Ashok Leyland in the year 1955. Ashok Leyland is the second-most ...

, the first low floor front entry public buses in the country. These were bought under the central

JNNURM Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) was a massive city-modernization scheme launched by the Government of India under the Ministry of Urban Development. It envisaged a total investment of over $20 billion over seven years. ...

scheme. In 2019, the West Bengal state government made a decision to transition the city's bus fleet, along with its ferry fleet, to be entirely electric by 2030, to reduce the levels of air pollution in the city.

Routes

Depots

Former CSTC Depots used for parking and repairing buses. *1 Belghoria Depot (Head Office) (BD) *2

Garia Garia ( Bengali:গড়িয়া) is a neighborhood in southern Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It is bordered by the neighborhoods of Jadavpur in the north, Bansdroni/Tollygunge in the north-west, Santoshpur/ Mukundapur in the north-east a ...

Depot (GD) *3

Howrah Howrah (, , alternatively spelled as Haora) is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. Howrah is located on the western bank of the Hooghly River opposite its twin city of Kolkata. Administratively it lies within Howrah district, and is ...

Depot (HD) *4 Kasba Depot (KD) *5 Lake Depot (LD) *6

Maniktala Maniktala is a residential area of North Kolkata, in Kolkata district, West Bengal, India. Etymology The tomb of Manik Pir is located in lane near Maniktala crossing. Some people say, the neighbourhood is named after Manik Pir. Others say, M ...

Depot (MD) *7 Nilgunge Depot (ND) *8 Paikpara Depot (PD) *9

Salt Lake A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of salt per litre) ...

Depot (SLD) *10

Taratala Taratala is a neighbourhood in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It is located in the southern part of the city. Location Taratala is situated at the southern part of Kolkata, surrounded by Garden Reach (west and north-west), Behala (south and sou ...

Depot (TD) *11

Thakurpukur Thakurpukur is a region of South West Kolkata in Behala area of the Indian state of West Bengal. It is majorly a residential region. It has been rapidly developed in the last 20 years and what was a jungle before is now an urban agglomerati ...

Depot (TPD) *12

Pride Plaza Pride is defined by Merriam-Webster as "reasonable self-esteem" or "confidence and satisfaction in oneself". A healthy amount of pride is good, however, pride sometimes is used interchangeably with "conceit" or "arrogance" (among other words) wh ...

Depot (PRD)

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control State agencies of West Bengal Transport in Kolkata Bus companies of India Organizations established in 1948 State road transport corporations of India Metropolitan transport agencies of India Indian companies established in 1948 1948 establishments in West Bengal