Monday blues turned particularly worse for city residents as the State-wide private bus strike entered the fourth day, making the routine commute a nightmarish experience for them.
Though the strike got under way on Friday, its full impact dawned on people at the start of the week. Traffic logjams hit all arterial roads in the city after private vehicles flooded them, playing havoc with people’s appointments and reporting times at schools and colleges.
KSRTC buses were out in numbers and continued to benefit from the absence of private buses after registering a record collection of ₹18.23 lakh on Saturday. Thiru-Kochi services also amassed record collection as the 32 schedules accounted for a combined collection of ₹4.20 lakh.
The collection fell to a more sedate ₹14 lakh on Sunday while Thiru-Kochi bagged ₹1.90 lakh.
Though KSRTC operated 114 schedules, including 32 Thiru-Kochi services on Monday, it fell way short of making up for the absence of private buses. While most bus stops were crowded, KSRTC buses had to skip many of them as they were already packed.
Casual workers were the worst affected as many of them could not reach their designated workplaces. “I haven’t gone to work for four days since I have to travel by two buses to reach the houses where I work. The KSRTC buses operating through our area are almost always packed, making it impossible for me to board them,” said Sindhu, a middle-aged domestic worker from Udayamperoor.
Cashing in on strike
School students were also affected and many of them could be seen requesting a lift at most places. Lakshmi, a banking executive, said an online cab operator charged her three times the usual fare for a short-distance trip within the city. Autorickshaws also made a windfall as people desperate to reach their destinations availed of their service even though the fares were on the higher side. The Kochi metro was yet another beneficiary as trains were filled to capacity most of the time.
The State Water Transport Department (SWTD) continued to attract increasing number of users to accommodate whom more services were operated in addition to the normal schedules depending on the passenger flow. The department’s revenue has also gone up during the last four days.
“Some of the passengers who had fallen back on boats on account of bus strike may stick to boats even after the strike ends. Many of them were not even aware till now that boat services were more feasible and took only half the time compared to buses,” said M. Sujith, Traffic Superintendent, SWDT.
