Bhubaneswar, Sept. 8: The housing and urban development department has asked the city bus service provider to take steps to ply its vehicles to Jayadev Pitha via Balipatna, which has been a long-standing demand of the residents.

The department has received complaints from the residents of Balipatna and Balianta, located on the city outskirts, about the problems they faced due to lack of public transport in their area. They have also demanded construction of a bus stand at Balipatna.

Under secretary to the government in the housing and urban development department Belalsen Behera asked the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation commissioner Krishan Kumar and the mayor Ananta Narayan Jena to look into the matter and take appropriate measures to resolve the problem.

'We have forwarded the complaints to the officials concerned to take steps and explore options to introduce the bus service in the area. We are increasing the number of bus routes based on the number of riders in a route. The Bhubaneswar Puri Transport Services Limited will conduct a survey on the possibilities and inform us about the pros and cons of introducing the service,' said a department official.

The residents are demanding a new bus route from Jayadev Pitha to Bhubaneswar, which will travel be via Kakarudrapur, Balipatna and Uttra Chhak. Once introduced, the bus on this route will cover a stretch of about 22km.

'Many of us travel to Bhubaneswar regularly to go to schools, offices and other places. At present, we have no direct bus or other public transport facilities to the city from our area,' said Rajendra Tripathy, a resident of Balianta.

Another resident of Balianta Ramesh Sahoo, a schoolteacher, said apart from introducing the new bus route, the administration should also build a bus stand at Balipatna.

'At present, we are depending on three private buses to reach Bhubaneswar. There is no direct bus route and we often get late,' Sahoo said.

At present, 98 intra-city buses are plying on 10 routes in the city.

'There are plans to boost the public transport facilities under the smart city programme. We are planning to increase the number of buses to about 500 and connect the cut-off areas with the main city. We will definitely take steps to solve the problems faced by the residents,' said Ananta Narayan Jena.