Post Diwali return by govt buses hell: Passengers

 Post Diwali return by govt buses hell: Passengers

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

Chennai: 17.11.2020

Returning to the city from their native places after Diwali on government mofussil buses was risky and tough, complain passengers.

Windshields of several new blue/sandal-coloured buses turned foggy in the interior side more frequently than usual during heavy rains.

Some passengers were told to leave the side windows open to avoid fogging. But this led to window seats getting completely wet.

Drivers, who halted at least once in 30 minutes, eventually had to travel much slower due to poor visibility from inside.

T R Pandian, who travelled in a Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Villupuram (TNSTC) bus from Kancheepuram to Chennai on Sunday evening, said that it took almost three hours to reach Koyambedu in a point-to-point (PP) service. For most parts of the journey, the driver couldn’t accelerate beyond 10-15 km an hour.

“This could happen when glasses meant for A/C buses were fit in these non A/C buses. Visible Light Transmission (VLT) of each glass is different and TNSTC needs to relook into whether appropriate ones were used while manufacturing windshields,” said Pandian, who is also an industry expert.

TNSTC drivers, who fear facing repercussions from higher-ups in case they complain against this, agree that it was an extra risk because their resting time will be cut if they travelled very slow.

Managing director of TNSTC Villupuram Muthukrishnan rejected these allegations and said such phenomenon was possible during the rainy season in one or two buses but not a common issue which is applicable to all new buses.

A senior technical staff at TNSTC said usually temperature outside the bus is less compared to inside during rains. Therefore, air inside the bus (with windows shut) carries moisture, which condenses when it comes in contact with the cold windshield.

“Foggy glasses can be cleaned easily using cloth. By opening the window for a few minutes, the dryer outside air can enter inside and set it right. There was no need to panic,” he added. However, official data suggests that at least 2,700 road accidents happen every year in the state during rains. Over 450 get killed in it and more than 3,500 get injured.

Besides the issue of foggy windshields, roofs of some of the new buses turned leaky forcing many passengers to cancel trips.