AGARTALA, Dec 11 (TIWN): With the sudden withdrawn of the hand written passport, the numbers of passengers travelling by Volvo bus between Agartala to Kolkata via Dhaka has gradually come down and hardly any passenger travels by this bus. Lakhs of money have been invested to buy a Volvo bus for providing service Agartala-Kolkata via Dhaka but even after beginning its maiden service, TRTC is still struggling to get adequate number of passengers.The Volvo bus service may be offering comfort to passengers but it is struggling to cater passengers. Reportedly, TRTC is not getting adequate numbers of passengers for travelling to Kolkata via Dhaka.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 but there is no adequate number of passengers to travel through the bus and with the withdrawal of the handwritten passports a very less numbers of passengers are travelling through this route, said Immigration O/C Kajal Das.He further said that though the bus service is not stopped officially but the lack of passengers has lessened the bus service in the state.The Bus itself cost Rs 88 lakh 23 thousand and after all other chargers including insurance and other things the range stands at Rs 91, 21,221.However, he also commented that the sudden withdrawn of the hand written passport have hampered the service but it is expected that with the due time the service will resume its pace in full swing.After facing several obstacles, the much awaited state own Volvo bus service has finally kick-off its journey but again several hurdles has stopped the bus service.

It is to be mentioned here that 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, but no adequate number of passengers is noticed.

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 has started 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; but TRTC is not getting adequate number of passengers.

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 brings down the distance to 470 kilometres.