The newly enforced traffic regulations at the Arayidathupalam junction have not gone down well with the private buses plying the city roads.
Private operators said that buses took additional time to ply through the new route. Besides, the rule caused fuel and financial loss. More than 250 buses coming from different parts of the suburbs and Mavoor, Koduvally, and Mukkom have to ply an extra kilometre from Aryidathupalam to reach the Palayam bus station. This route was considered to be one of the bottlenecks in city, they said.
Bus Operators Organisation secretary K. Radhakrishnan said the loss was Rs.1,000 a day for a bus even with the revised tariff. Many trips had to be cancelled because the schedule of the buses would be changed after plying on a congested route. The time allowed for a bus to ply a km was three minutes. Previously, it was two minutes or 2 minutes 30 seconds.
“This also means that bus workers would not get time to relax either at the starting point or after reaching the destination. Moreover, passengers who want to go to the Mofussil bus station will have to catch a second bus if they alight at Palayam,” he said.
The problem could be solved if other four-wheelers, including cars, plied the route now allotted for private buses. Also, buses should be given the option of taking the normal route. “The public transport system should be given importance, especially when the number of bus services has dwindled in the city. Earlier, over 3,000 buses operated services, but now the number is 2,000. There are 100 cars for a bus now,” Mr. Radhakrishnan said.
However, Assistant Commissioner (Traffic-South) Abdul Razak said that the new rule had been formulated to streamline the traffic and reduce the congestion at the Mofussil bus station. “The new rule appears to be a success. For the past two days, the traffic is smooth. We will observe the movement of vehicles for the next fortnight,” he said. Bus owners had no grounds to complain as the rule had been in force before the commissioning of the E.K. Nayanar flyover at Arayidathupalam.