Govt’s ban on inter-district bus services hits common man hard
Newly Resumed Intra-Dist Buses See Few Takers
D.Govardan@timesgroup.com
Chennai:02.09.2020
S Satish, an employee at a wholesale provisions store in Tambaram, would frequently travel to Tindivanam. Prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, he would just walk across GST Road, board a TNSTC bus and reach his destination in two hours.
On Tuesday, when Tamil Nadu permitted resumption of intra-district public transport service after months of lockdown, he was told buses would ply only up to Thozhupedu, about 80km from Tambaram, where Chengalpet district limit ends. He would have to get down and walk some distance to enter Villupuram district and then board another bus to reach his destination, which is still around 25km away. Satish decided against the travel.
Such stories are found aplenty around the state as the absence of inter-district bus services has hit people hard, especially those from low-income groups. While private stage carriers have decided to stay off the roads for at least another month or until state government permits inter-district operations, the TNSTC is limiting services to mostly town buses with most mofussil buses remaining in sheds.
“Previously, I had to take just one bus to reach Tiruvarur. Now, I have to take two apart from covering a certain distance between the districts by walk. Those who can afford it prefer cabs, but we rely on public transport,” M Paranjothi, a traveller to Tiruvarur from Trichy central bus stand, said.
As expected, patronage too was poor. “Only after the resumption of inter-district services, we can expect more people to travel,” a TNSTC official said.
In the case of MTC buses, which used to frequent neighbouring Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Chengalpet districts, authorities opted to allow services only up to the Greater Chennai Police limits. An employee working in a factory in Sriperumbudur and depending on public transport now has to get down at Poonnamallee and board another bus to reach to his factory. MTC buses too reported poor collections.
“It is not economically viable to operate buses with 25 passengers. At least earlier, the government had grouped three or four districts under each zone and permitted bus operators to ply on those routes. While even that had to be stopped for viability reasons, we have now decided to wait one more month for things to turn better,” a representative of private bus operators’ federation for Kancheepuram – Chengalpet districts said.
(With inputs from P Oppili in Chennai and Deepak Karthik in Trichy)
Pvt operators urge NHAI not to hike toll fee
Private bus and lorry operators urged the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to forego the annual hike of toll fee to help the transport industry bounce back from the lockdown-induced financial crunch, saying the hike will ultimately affect the common man as price of commodities would increase. Toll fee would be increased from ₹5 to ₹30 for different categories of vehicles from September 1in 22 of 48 plazas in TN. “This step would destabilise the transport sector. At this juncture, we are pleading with the NHAI to refrain from increasing the toll fee. But there is no response,” said S Yuvaraj, president of TN State Lorry Owners’ Welfare Federation. However, a senior NHAI official said no such representation has been made and added, “... it is not feasible to hold back the increase in toll fee.” TNN
