Odisha’s ‘Mo Bus’ Service to Reach Every Panchayat, Expanding Transportation Access

Bhubaneswar: Transport Secretary Usha Padhee announced today that the ‘Mo Bus’ service will be accessible in all panchayats (villages) of Odisha. This initiative falls under the ‘Laxmi’ scheme and will facilitate bus transportation between blocks and panchayats.

Initially, the service will be introduced in six districts, namely Koraput, Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Malkangiri, Kalahandi, and Gajapati. The plan is to expand the service to other regions in the future, according to Padhee.

In a recent development, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik gave his approval to extend the ‘Mo Bus’ service to nine towns located in Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, and Ganjam districts of Odisha. Specifically, the service will be extended to the Sambalpur-Jharsuguda-Brajarajnagar-Belpahar cluster and the Berhampur-Gopalpur-Chhatrapur-Hinjilicut-Digapahandi cluster.

The ‘Mo Bus’ service was initially introduced in November 2018 as part of the Capital Region Urban Transport (CRUT) under the Capital Region Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). It has since covered the districts of Khurda, Cuttack, and Puri, boasting a daily ridership of 2.3 lakh with a fleet of 390 buses.

Following its success as the primary means of mobility for the residents of the Capital Region of Odisha, the ‘Mo Bus’ services were expanded to the Rourkela-Biramitrapur-Rajgangpur Master Plan area in Sundargarh district during the World Cup Hockey in January 2023.