Manipur is planning to introduce helicopter passenger services to improve connectivity. The purpose of this service is to transport passengers and patients from remote areas of the volatile border state.
This was disclosed by the State Chief Secretary RR Rashmi while reintroducing the a Manipur State Transport (MST) passenger bus service between the state capital and Chandel district headquarters. This was at the recently commissioned Inter-State Bus Terminus (ISBT) at Khuman Lampak in Imphal on Monday.
The state transport commissioner M Lakhikumar and others officials attended the reintroduction of the bus service.
The Imphal-Chandel services will run three times a day covering a distance of 65 km up and down on a daily basis to serve the villagers as well as other office goers. The bus will pass through four districts-Imphal West, Thoubal, Kakching and Chandel.
The new passenger bus services was made operational after Chief Minister N Biren Singh assured of it during his maiden visit to Chandel after becoming the Chief Minister of BJP led coalition government on November 4 last year.
On June 24,2017, Biren Singh reintroduced the public transport systems by utilizing ten MST buses for fourteen different routes in the state capital and districts.MST will operate city bus service in two routes, both originating from ISBT, Khuman Lampak.
The transport agency would also initially have Imphal-Noney, Imphal-Moreh, Imphal-Kakching, Imphal-Yairipok, Imphal-Moirang and Imphal-Pherzawl inter-district bus services. The proposed fleet size of the agency will be 150 buses and they would be procured in three phases. Initially, purchase of five buses has been approved by the Government. In the first phase, the fleet size will be 16 buses including ten semi-low floor buses.
Buses originating from ISBT Khuman Lampak would operate on two routes to serve the passengers in and around the city. Similarly buses originating from old MSRTC complex, Moirangkhom would also operate on two routes to serve the city and district passengers.