Due to poor passenger traffic, the Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC) has decided to reduce the number of Pink Buses from 25 to merely four.
In this regard, the ASTC has issued a notification stating that the number of passengers on the pink buses operating in Guwahati has decreased in recent months.
The notification added, “Therefore, it has been decided to decrease the operation of the buses and only four buses will operate in Guwahati on a daily basis.”
The ASTC has released a new timetable for the routes that the buses will be operating on. According to the newly updated timetable, the bus service will run on four routes.
The first bus will go from Khanapara to Jalukbari, the second from Jalukbari to Khanapara, the third from Bonda/Narengi to Jalukbari, and the fourth from Jalukbari to Bonda/Narengi.
The notification also stated that if demand spikes again, the operational fleet may be expanded, and that it will be done if necessary for travel convenience.
In 2021, former Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal introduced a fleet of 25 buses. The ‘Pink Bus’ was launched as part of the ‘Bhraman Sarathi’ scheme to provide free transportation to women and senior persons within Guwahati.
