Calcutta State Transport Corporation

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Calcutta State Transport Corporation
Calcutta State Transport Corporation logo.png
State Bus in Calcutta (Ashok Leyland Janbus).jpg
CSTC Non AC Bus
Founded31 July 1948;77 years ago (1948-07-31) as State Transport Services [1]
Defunct2017
Headquarters Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Service area Kolkata
Long Distance Services was till 2015
Service typelimited-stop, express bus service
Depots11 till 2017
Fleet782 till 2017
Daily ridership20,00,000
Operator Government of West Bengal
Website wbtc.co.in
CSTC Maniktala bus depot, Kolkata. Calcutta State Transport Corporation Maniktala Bus Depot - Kolkata 2012-01-23 8634.JPG
CSTC Maniktala bus depot, Kolkata.

Calcutta State Transport Corporation (CSTC) was a West Bengal state government undertaken corporation. Headquartered in Kolkata, it was set up on 31 July 1948. [1] Currently it operates under the name WBTC. It plied buses in Kolkata and nearby districts of West Bengal, along with some long-distance services. CSTC owned 11 depots in Kolkata (then known as Calcutta). [2]

Contents

History

Calcutta State Transport Corporation started its journey on 31 July 1948 as State Transport Services with an objective to provide efficient, adequate, economical and properly coordinated passenger bus service particularly in and around the city of Kolkata and in the state of West Bengal in general.

On 15 June 1960 the name of State Transport Service changed to Calcutta State Transport Corporation (CSTC) under the Road Transport Corporation Act, 1950. By 1966, it had upgraded its services and was connected to 90 percent of the national highways. To fulfill the demand of rural passengers, CSTC introduced one of the earliest Long Distance Bus Services (LDS) from Calcutta to Digha in April 1968.

Merger with WBTC

In 2017, the Department of Transport (West Bengal) merged CSTC with other transport agencies such as CTC and WBSTC to form WBTC.

Operations

Fleet

With a fleet of 782 buses, CSTC was able to set up a number of bus routes in the southern part of West Bengal which were till then not connected to any other means of formal public transport. CSTC also pioneered the running of air-conditioned Volvo buses in Kolkata, replacing the aging fleet.

Air conditioned buses were launched in July 2014 on 40 routes across the city and suburbs. They were in blue and white livery, the buses included a complete fleet of Volvo 8400 units as well as Tata Marcopolo, JanBus models from Ashok Leyland, the first low floor front entry public buses in the country. These were brought under the visionary of the central JNNURM scheme. [3]

In 2019, the West Bengal state government made a decision to transition the city's bus fleet, along with its ferry fleet, to be entirely electric by 2030, to reduce the levels of air pollution in the city. [4]

Depots

Former CSTC Depots were used for parking and repairing buses. The following depots were:

References

  1. 1 2 "Kolkata Road transport". Archived from the original on 6 October 2013. Retrieved 21 December 2012.
  2. ↑ "Kolkata's CSTC celebrates 75 historic years with decorated fleet". The Telegraph. 2 August 2023. Retrieved 12 September 2025.
  3. ↑ "City gets bus fleet the world is waiting for". 30 July 2014. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  4. ↑ "Kolkata is electrifying buses and ferries". C40. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
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