Gangtok experiences local taxi problems in tourist season

GANGTOK: One of the best way to know that tourist season is ‘in’ is when people are seen queuing up on the roads waiting for taxi. Large numbers of tourists are visiting Sikkim every day, which is actually good but the flip side of this is the unavailability of taxis for the normal passengers.

Recently the Government had come up with a very good proposal of starting ‘Gangtok Darshan’ bus services for the tourists but it had to be dropped because of the opposition form the Driver’s Association. But had the Government started this project every day passengers would not have faced so much of problems.

The SNT is trying to help by providing city runners but those buses are not as convenient as the taxis because of the problem for stoppage. The taxi drivers had opposed the Gangtok Darshan project as they were apprehensive that their bread and butter may be compromised, but looking at the queue of people at roadside everyday it appears that it is the general public who are compromised by the decision the most.

Mr RB Rai resident of Daragaon Tadong said that “he works in private sector but due to traffic problems and shortage of the taxi is unable to reach office in time ‘everyday’”. This is the story of maximum of Government employees as well travelling by taxi these days.

President of Travel Agent Association of Sikkim (TAAS) Mr. Lukendra Rasaily when approached said that the Government must consider luxury bus service for the tourists to bring quality in tourism. He also added that many locals will get employment as guides, caterers, drivers, helping boys etc. This project will also give an authentic flavor to the tourism service and will also help in controlling overcharging, which has become a serious issue, concerning the image of Sikkim Tourism itself.

(Sikkim Mail)

Lady conductors of Gangtok City Runners

GANGTOK- Two Sikkimese lady conductors have sucessfully completed seven months as conductors for government run city buses in Gangtok proving that women too can compete with men in every sphere.
Ofcourse, passengers gawk at Pemala Bhutia(24) and Jyoti Subba(26) and remain nonplusses soetimes when these two lady bus conductors ask them the bus fares.

'It is not easy to deal with passengers, I think they don't consider me as a bus conductor because I am a woman. There are some passengers who remain stumped when I ask them the bus fare and only after some time, they realize that I am the bus conductor and start paying. Since we are the first women bus conductors in Sikkim, even women passengers find it diffivult to believe us as conductors', said Pemala while sharing her experience working as a bus conductor after receiving appointment orders along with Jyoti from the State Government on Octover last year.
These two ladies were among the ten bus conductors appointed at that time.

Pemala, who stays at Rumtek with her recently married husband, takes the SNT city runner every morning from Rumtek to Gangtok at 7 am. She gets home at around 5-6 pm tired and exhausted. 'I get tred as I have to stand on the bus when all the seats are occupied', she said.

'No job is easy. The profession is challenging but I am satisfied and will not step back as I have received good training from the government', she said.
'Who to shy away from working? No work is small', said Pemala, a graduate from Sikkim Government College.

GANGTOK DARSHAN OF 5 TOURISM SPOTS BY SNT BUS SERVICE LAUNCHED

GANGTOK, 29 April: The Sikkim Nationalised Transport [SNT] has finalized plans to introduce buses services from Rangpo to Kakarivitta, Nepal, from Rangpo to Kolkata, Rangpo to Jaigaon, the border with Bhutan and Rangpo to Bodhgaya,Jharkhand in the coming days.

“We want to increase our mileage and want to keep up with being the best transport service providers in the region. We want to make Rangpo our base and augment our fleet on a war footing,” informed chief engineer cum general manager, SNT Division, ND Rai while speaking to local media.

He added that SNT will also be initiating a new direct bus service from Gangtok to Kalimpong after the elections in West Bengal and also add 6 new buses for the “Gangtok- Darshan” circuit which will prove helpful to the tourists.

In addition, the SNT, in collaboration with the Department of Tourism, will also add direct deluxe bus services to tourist destinations in North Sikkim like Lachung and Lachen for the convenience of tourists during peak tourist season.

Keeping pace with the modernized mode of transportation, SNT has now increased its fleet of service buses to 107 which includes 2 air-conditioned, another 2 super-deluxe and 25 semi-deluxe buses under the JNNURM scheme which is being used basically for the urban populace. The SNT deploys the maximum number of buses from the North-East wing of the SNT division with 75 buses reaching out to the remotest of areas in these districts. Similarly, the South-West wing has a fleet of 27 buses followed by another 12 buses from the special Rangpo wing.

“We will also upgrade the existing fleet of buses to raise the comfort standards to be provided to the locals”, added the GM.

Another area where the SNT provides its services is to the Indian Army and GREF personnel for which 6 semi-deluxe buses are provided every-day on a regular basis. Similarly, SNT also provides the defense forces with transport trucks, oil tankers and load carriers. The SNT has through this service increased revenue by 12 % during this year’s tender process as compared to the prevailing rate of the previous year. The Indian Army is so appreciative of the services being provided by the SNT that it has proposed that new air-conditioned deluxe buses with additional comforts even for officers be added to the fleet provided to them. It is also informed that the army, keeping in view SNT’s efficient services which ply to inhospitable border areas like Zuluk and Zema, has also decided to pay the SNT revenue for two-way transportation [unlike earlier when the SNT was paid revenue for only one-way].

“We have systemized our way of functioning and considerably enhanced the quality of our services. We have backed our services by keeping reserve trucks and buses for the army if there is any breakdown along the difficult routes,” explained Mr. Rai.

Another area where the SNT, GM states that the division shall look into is the overloading of trucks that ply along NH-31A. With no weigh-bridges either at Rangpo or Melli check-posts, the chances of transporters to produce ‘forged and duplicate’ weigh-bills are significant . Thus to curb this illegal practice, the SNT will install weigh-bridges at both the border check-posts soon.

“We want to act as watch-dogs to discourage overloading which is also why our highways are crumbling away. We will ensure that the load which we define is followed by all transporters,” informed Mr. Rai.

Before concluding his conversation with NOW!, the general manager cum chief engineer, SNT informed about the new scheme which the transport division had initiated for the local unemployed youth of the state.

While mentioning that power project developers in Sikkim were using transporters from outside the state to act as load carriers for them, he explained that this was proving to be a big loss for the local transporters here as they were not being able to meet the required demand for transport vehicles.

According to him, his office had decided to purchase 60 new trucks under the Chief Minister’s Swarozgar Yojana for which the state government had also sanctioned 25 percent of the margin money, that the SNT was signing a tripartite agreement on 30 April, Saturday with the state government and the financers. The trucks will be given to beneficiaries who shall be paying the subsidized loan EMI for a certain period under the supervision of the SNT, after-which the trucks shall be owned by the beneficiaries themselves.

‘We are buying the trucks at one go and propose to take the number up-to a hundred trucks. We want our trucks to meet the demand of the power developers and generate income for our people. The first phase of the deal is over and now the implementation part remains. We will be monitoring the beneficiaries very closely and the trucks shall be under GPS surveillance”, informed Mr. Rai.

25 new buses to hit the roads of Gangtok soon

GANGTOK, November 25: After the much-awaited plan of the Sikkim Nationalised Transport (SNT) department to procure new buses under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) plan, the SNT General Manager, LM Pradhan today said the first batch of 25 new buses is expected to hit the Capital roads before the end of this year.
The total estimated cost of buying the 25 buses have been Rs. 3 crores out of which Rs 30 lakhs will be borne by the State Government while the remaining 90 percent of the amount will be provided under the JNNURM scheme. It has also been learnt that Gangtok is one out of 63 cities in India which have been identified under JNNURM scheme.
“The issue pertaining to this has already been discussed in the Cabinet meeting and the money has been sanctioned,” Mr. Pradhan told media persons.
The 24-seater buses, it is informed are expected to ply in an around the periphery of the Capital and its adjoining areas connecting Setipul, Jali Power House, Marchak, Central School, Penlong, Luing and other areas.
The SNT GM informed there are already five city runners (buses) in the Capital operating from different areas and the new 25 buses added will eventually help the local passengers and office goers thus solving the problem of transportation during peak tourist seasons

SNT driver was caught with ganja: GJM

GLP will not disturb cordial relations between Sikkim and Darjeeling: Dr. HB Chettri
GANGTOK, August 1: Reiterating the traditional ties between Sikkim and Darjeeling, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) today denied of any high handiness approach and allegations of ‘extortion’ or ‘physical assaults’ by its frontal organization, Gorkhaland Police (GLP) on ‘innocent’ commuters travelling along the National Highway 31A from Siliguri to Sikkim.
“The GLP members are highly disciplined and have been merely tasked to remove the menace of drugs along the Highway. The GLP will not trouble any innocent persons and will not disturb the cordial relationships or create problems between Sikkim and Darjeeling. We are acting with restraint”, the GJM publicity secretary, Dr. Hara Bahadur Chettri said.
Regarding the allegations levelled by a SNT driver who had accused GLP youth of ‘assault’ and ‘looting’ at 10th Mile in Rangpo side of West Bengal along the NH 31A, the GJM publicity secretary shifted the blame on the driver himself.
“The particular driver was highly intoxicated and moreover, the GLP have recovered some marijuana (ganja) from him. The GLP boys landed a couple of dandas on him and told him that he will be handed over to Sikkim police. To this, the driver pleaded that he will lose his job and also that he was family man”, said Dr. Chettri. He informed that the GLP boys did some beating and let the driver go. The GLP had also informed the recovery of ganja to the Rangpo Sikkim police and gave them the number of the vehicle, he added.
“The seized ganja has been confiscated and still with us”, Dr. Chettri.
“The driver had also given a false name to the GLP which we found from the Sikkim Rangpo police and it is obvious that he had tried to mislead us as he was doing something wrong,” said Dr. Chettri.
While claiming the other incidents along the highway as complained were blown out of proportion, the GJM publicity secretary reminded that the GLP is doing great service to the Sikkimese people by stopping contraband substances meant for delivery in Sikkim. We were greatly appreciated when the GLP recovered drugs recently along the highway meant to be delivered in Sikkim, said Dr. Chettri.
At the same time, the GJM publicity secretary admitted that GLP boys could have overdone things although the GLP members are very much disciplined. There might be some elements as it will be anywhere, he said adding the amount of beating was not required and proper procedures should have been taken.
“We have briefed the GLP deployed in the NH 31 A to adopt procedures”, said Dr. Chettri assuring that innocent commuters along the highway will not be troubled while the drug smugglers will be handed over to the police