AGARTALA, Oct 4 (TIWN): After waiting for several months, the state government has finally catered its own Volvo bus to the land locked Tripura to provide its own volvo bus service from Agartala to Kolkata via Dhaka.The state is all set to start its own first volvo bus service to Kolkata from Agartala via Dhaka expectedly from Oct 15 said Samarjit Bhowmik secretary, Transport department.With the aim to start the state own bus service to Kolkata from Agartala via Dhaka, a Volvo bus has arrived in the state on Saturday late night and is kept at TRTC garage area.Despite all odds and with an aim to meet the demand of the land-locked Tripura and to contain the rise in airfares the Tripura Left front government has at last bought luxury bus for the Agartala-Kolkata route via Bangladesh capital Dhaka. Tripura is all set to kick off the commercial service between Agartala and Kolkata, while the West Bengal Government has already started its commercial service successfully. The bus fare has been fixed at Rs. 2000 for Kolkata-Dhaka-Agartala route and for Agartala-Dhaka-Kolkata it is fixed at Rs 1500.Talking to TIWN correspondent on Sunday State Transport secretary Samarjit Bhowmik, who has witnessed several historical momentum of the Tripura left front Government under his career said, those international standard Volvo buses is bought with an aim for comfort of Tripura passengers.The introduction of Volvo buses however has of course triggered a question now among the drivers who would be entrusted to drive the Volvo bus; also questions about maintenance as no Volvo maintenance exist in Tripura.However, the bus which has arrived in the state is not yet ready to ply as it need to be examined and a team of experts engineers from Bangalore will shortly arrive here in the state to check the status of the bus.

If everything goes on smooth the state own bus service will began in the state before puja, said Samarjit Bhowmik secretary, Transport department.

The sources also said that the Bus itself cost Rs 88 lakh 23 thousand and after all other chargers including insurance and other things the range stands at Rs91, 21,221.

Samarjit Bhowmik secretary, Transport department also said that all together more 35 buses will be ply in the city streets before puja.

The existing route between Kolkata and Agartala by road has been a complex one with an estimated distance of 1,650 kilometres. The journey through the narrow 'chicken neck' territory via Guwahati and Shillong takes around two days.

But the new route via Dhaka, Rupganj, Narsingdi, Brahmanberia and Akhaura would bring down the distance to 470 kilometres.

The Kolkata-Dhaka bus service was introduced in 1999. Since then, there has been a demand for connectivity with Tripura. The successful run of Kolkata-Dhaka service brightened the scope for another service in the northeastern sector. While Agartala-Dhaka service was introduced in 2003, requests started pouring in for a direct link.