They call them bus, but I feel they’re just cramped moving boxes. If you’ve ever bought sardines packed in tin cans, you’d find similarity with the condition of people who travel in Kolkata’s moving boxes in peak hours.
What makes journey in them difficult is the fact that passengers have no comfort inside the bus and that the buses drive as if they are a law unto themselves for they abide by no rules for safe driving.
Often they swallow and disgorge passengers in the middle of road putting their lives in peril, not to speak of engaging in ungodly rat race among each other putting lives of passers-by in danger. No wonder most road accidents in the city occur because of them.
Laws of economics say that private ownership is more susceptible to customer demand and satisfaction so that market share does not slide, because after all maximization of profit is what private companies look for.
Perhaps nowhere in the world is this theory proved utterly wrong as in the case of Kolkata’s private buses. How does this happen?
Kolkata’s private buses have hundreds of small owners each owning may be 2 to 3 buses or perhaps more. They then form a cartel enjoying political patronage, which is so powerful that no amount of public outrage can make them mend their ways.
Visitors who are new to the city are often appalled to see the condition of the buses, but when they see how they operate on the road, they’d rather move miles away from these demons on the move.
Here are 2 pictures. In one, the bus is in one of those countless unscheduled stoppages looking for passengers. The story has it that if you wave from your verandah signaling it to wait as you get ready to leave, the bus will do that till you come and board it.
In the other picture, 2 mini-buses are about to start a rat race between them.
Leave a Reply