Taxis protest today -Tourists exempted

Darjeeling . More than 500 taxis plying between Darjeeling and Siliguri will stay off the roads today to demand immediate repair of the Rohini route that connects the hills and the plains. Taxis ferrying tourists and school students will not participate in the strike.The 17-km Rohini road is dotted with craters and the black top has come off exposing the dirt beneath. Drivers said there had been four accidents on the route in the last two months.

During her visit to the hills in October, Mamata Banerjee had announced that the state government would provide Rs 20 crore for repairing the road from Rohini. “Life will go on only if the roads are good,” the chief minister had said.The administration today said the Rs 20 crore was meant for all damaged roads in the hills. “A part of the funds has come. That is why we could float tenders for the Rohini road. The process is on. But we need more cash if we are to repair all roads,” said an official.

In Siliguri, the administration tried to cajole the drivers into withdrawing the strike but they refused. “The district magistrate will listen to their grievances on December 8,” said Amit P. Javalgi, the additional superintendent of police of Siliguri.Four associations of truckers from the Darjeeling hills, plains and Sikkim, too, have threatened to go on an indefinite strike from Wednesday if their hiring charges are not increased.

The president of the Darjeeling-Siliguri Taxi Drivers’ Welfare Association, Kavindra Gurung, said: “We along with the members of the Siliguri-based Terai Chalak Sangathan have decided not to ply our taxis tomorrow to protest the poor condition of the Rohini road.”The two associations have requested private car owners not to go in for hire if they ply their vehicles.

The associations, however, have decided to exempt vehicles carrying tourists. “We don’t want to inconvenience tourists and vehicles carrying them will be allowed to ply. We will also permit cars carrying students, defence personnel and local people who have valid air and railway tickets,” said Gurung, whose association enjoys the backing of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha.Asked how tourists would be identified, Gurung said: “We know, we can tell.”

At this time, nearly 500 people visit the hills daily. For the past one year, the hills have been seeing a steady tourist flow, with the Morcha suspending its statehood agitation and signing an agreement with the government to form a new set-up for the hills. The tourist count goes up during Puja and the peak season from April to June. As many as 2,000 visitors come to Darjeeling town alone then.

The associations have also decided to ask other transport syndicates not to ply their taxis tomorrow. More than a dozen syndicates with 500 more member cars operate in the hills on smaller routes. Gurung said these syndicates had agreed to extend support to the strike and would not ferry passengers on the Siliguri-Darjeeling route.The Rohini road branches out from NH55 near Simulbari tea estate, 15km from Siliguri, and joins the highway a little before Kurseong.With Hill Cart Road or NH55 closed for over one-and-a-half years because of landslide-induced damage at two points, vehicles bound for Darjeeling and Kurseong are travelling via Rohini.

The Rohini road was opened a little over nine years back and has been reduced to a dirt track more because heavy vehicles, which usually use NH55, have been plying on it. Taxi drivers prefer the road through Rohini, as it is the shortest route between Siliguri and Darjeeling taking three-and-a-half to four hours. The journey through Hill Cart Road takes four to four-and-a-half hours. During Mamata’s October visit to the hills, the administration was accused of trying to save its skin as she was made to take the circuitous Bagdogra Dudhia-Mirik-Sukhiapokri-Ghum-Darjeeling route instead of the shorter Rohini route.

The associations had also demanded that the district administration should consider hiking the present taxi fare of Rs 100 per person from Darjeeling to Siliguri.The administrator of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, Anil Verma, said the repair on Rohini road would start from the third week of December. “We have already asked for bids from contractors and the entire process should be over soon. Work should start from the third week of December,” he said.

The DGHC had on November 30 issued an advertisement inviting tenders from those interested in the BOT (build, operate and transfer) model. The idea under this model is to hand over the repair, maintenance and operation of the road to a private party on a long-term basis. During the term of the agreement, the private party will generate revenue by charging toll tax from every vehicle plying on the route. After the term ends, the road will be handed back to the council.

( Source - The Telegraph)