The Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation plans to operate 240 special buses between Coimbatore and other districts, including Madurai, Theni, Tiruchi and Salem to manage the Pongal weekend crowd.
Officials in the district said 100 buses will be operated to Madurai, 40 to Theni and 50 each to Tiruchi and Salem. The buses will run from Thursday morning to Saturday night, till the rush eases.
Services to Madurai and Theni will be from the Singanallur Bus Stand, those going via Karur and Tiruchi will start from the Sulur Bus Stand, via Salem, Tiruppur, Erode, Anaikatti and Sathyamangalam from Gandhipuram Central Bus Terminus and via Ooty and Mettupalayam from New Bus Stand on Mettupalayam Road, the statement read.
Officials at the TNSTC stated that the additional buses will be run by the existing staff and no extra employees will be appointed. Further, officials claimed that currently, there are two drivers for each bus in 950 buses and 70 spare buses in Coimbatore zone.
As per an earlier report by The Hindu, K. Periyasamy of the Labour Progressive Federation said as per norms, the ratio of buses to drivers must be 1:2.265 to avoid accidents and workers can avail leaves, but this is not followed.
