Pongal spl buses: 1L people leave city in 24 hours

Pongal spl buses: 1L people leave city in 24 hours

Ram.Sundaram@timesgroup.com

Chennai: 12.01.2021

Close to one lakh people on Monday left the city to their native places by government special buses to celebrate Pongal with their families.

The state transport department had announced that 16,110 buses would be operated from Chennai to various parts of the state from Monday to Thursday.

Of this, over 1,985 were operated on Monday (till 8pm) and 92,300 had travelled in them, according to official data. Another 8,000 were expected to travel late in the night.

A total of 93,000 people have already reserved tickets to travel by government buses in the next three days. Tickets can be booked can be booked at www.tnstc.in or using apps like RedBus, Paytm, makemytrip and BusIndia.

Meanwhile, private omni bus operators continued to fleece passengers this festival season too. On an average, it cost ₹800 to ₹1,000 to travel in an A/C bus to Madurai or Coimbatore from the capital city. The government has once again issued a warning as a mere formality and released helpline 1800 425 6151 to file complaints about excess fare demanded by private buses.

Though hundreds of bus operators can be seen selling tickets at exorbitant prices on online platforms, the transport department resorted to customary checks in and around Koyambedu in the eleventh hour to book a dozen operators or slightly more every time.

In Chennai, Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) has announced that it will operate 310 additional buses connecting various transit points like Koyambedu Chennai Moffusil Bus Terminus (CMBT), Tambaram, Madhavaram and Poonamalle from where Pongal special buses to other districts would depart.

This included buses which ply along routes like 153 (Poonamalle-CMBT), 78 (Koyambedu-Thiruvanmiyur), 18G (Broadway-Tambaram) and 570V (Vadapalani-Kelambakkam).

These buses will run round the clock for the next three days, said an official release.