AGARTALA, June 11 (TIWN): Historic Agartala–Dhaka-Kolkata bus service flagged off jointly by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina ,West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on June 6, last is facing uncertainty as the state transport authority TRTC is unable to procure the required buses for the route till date. According to TRTC sources, the corporation has pplaced orders for four luxury buses to the vehicle company TATA Motors, but the latter has not supplied the same to the TRTC so far (payment issues) delaying the bus service in the Agartala- Dhaka-Kolkata route.The sorry state of the TRTC was exposed during the trial run of the TRTC bus in the Agartala-Dhaka-Kolkata route on June 1 last, when the state owned transport corporation somehow managed an old bus of the corporation for the trial run after putting some colour on its body.The bus reportedly halted in many places during its journey due to technical slugs and returned to Agartala somehow.According to some gossips that is doing the round in the capital’s various corners, the bus service is being delayed intentionally by the TRTC after the state Chief Minister Manik Sarkar was left out of the list of the dignitaries to flag off the bus service by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladeshi premier Sheikh Hasina.

It may be mentioned here that the state Transport minister Manik Dey expressed his displeasure at the non inclusion of State Chief Minister Manik Sarkar in the Prime Minister Modi’s team for Bangladesh visit.

Chief Minister Manik Sarkar himself too criticized the Central Govt’s decision of not giving invitation to him as politically aimed move and termed Prime Minister’s Bangladesh visit along with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as politically controlled one.  

Though the maximum bus fare for the Agartala-Dhaka-Kolkata journey was fixed at Rs. 1500 which is much lesser compared to the highly priced air tickets in the Agartala-Kolkata route, the poor will have to wait for some more days before they can move to Kolkata by bus.  

It may be mentioned here that the Guwahati -Shillong –Dhaka bus service which was flagged off by the Indian Prime Minister and Bangladesh Prime Minister on the same date that is June 6, last is plying happily on the route but the Agartala-Dhaka-Kolkata bus service is reeling under uncertainty.