Transport created 7.5 lakh jobs in 5 years, says Alapan Bandopadhyay

Kolkata: The transport sector has generated 7.5 lakh jobs in West Bengal in last five years and its potential as an income and employment creator needs to be explored by big time industries, state transport secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay said here on Saturday.

“Transport as a business opportunity is under-emphasised and has not been given much importance by the big names in the industry, who give more emphasis to vehicle manufacturing,” Mr Bandopadhyay said at the sidelines of ‘Transport Expo’ organised by the CII here at Milan Mela.

The state government’s ‘Gatidhara’ project, in the line of JNNURM scheme of the Central government for providing financial stimulus to commercial taxi operators, can act as an economic stimulus in the state transport sector which has been hit hard by the Narendra Modi government’s demonetisation decision, he said.

“Gatidhara will generate sale of nearly 5500 vehicles in the next four months. Our target is to sell 7500 vehicles in this financial year. It is surely acting as an economic stimulus in transport sector when the sale of cars has dropped drastically after the Central government’s decision to scrap  currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations,” Mr Bandyopadhyay said.

Gatidhara was rolled out in December last year to offer financial help up to Rs 1 lakh to unemployed people aged between 20 and 45 to buy “small vehicles”. The transport department has provided financial assistance for more than 2,000 commercial and luxury taxis under the scheme so far since April 2016.

Mr Bandyopadhyay also announced the release of a compendium at the Bengal Global Business Summit in January 2017 on the ease of doing business in the transport sector. “We have formed a task force and have already started discussions with top automobile and motor dealers on how to ease out business for the stakeholders in this sector,” he said.