Berhampur: The Ganjam District Private Bus Owners' Association on Tuesday called off their strike at the end of a high-level meeting in Bhubaneswar. The association was not operating passenger buses for the past three days to protest against the relocation of the existing bus-stand to the newly constructed terminal at Haladiapadara, on the outskirts of Berhampur town.The government has given three months' time to the private bus operators to ply their vehicles from the new terminal, said MLA (Berhampur) R.Ch Chyaupatnaik, who took part in the talks on Tuesday. The bus owners, however, sought six months' time. "The private buses will operate from the existing bus-stand till they shift to the new one at Haladiapadara," the MLA said."We have agreed to withdraw the strike after the government promised it would look into our concerns about the Haladiapadara bus terminal," said Santosh Pati, one of the leaders of the association.Besides Chyaupatnaik and representatives of the bus association, including its state president Prakash Mishra, the meeting was attended by rural development minister Bikram Arukh, Gopalpur MLA Pradeep Panigrahy, the transport commissioner, the transport secretary, the urban development secretary and the Ganjam collector. Transport minister Nurshingh Charan Sahu presided over the meeting.The new terminal was developed on 3.90 acres of land at an investment of Rs 12.87 crore by the Berhampur Development Authority. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated it in February 2016.

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