Hundreds of passengers who reached Mettupalayam Road bus stand on Friday morning to board buses to Sathyamangalam were in for a shock after they were told that they will have to board buses from Gandhipuram bus stand.
Buses bound for Sathyamangalam were originally operated from Gandhipuram bus stand. After flyover works began, it was shifted to Mettuppalayam road bus stand. With the flyover having been thrown open, bus drivers were asked to operate services from Gandhipuram, but the information was not made available in the public domain.
While admitting the shortcomings, a top official of the TNSTC, Coimbatore Division, said that they received intimation late on Thursday night from the Transport Department to operate buses from Gandhipuram bus stand from Friday.
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The official said that altogether 69 buses including 43 TNSTC buses were operated to Sathyamangalam, Annur and Gobichettipalayam via Ganapathy every day. TNSTC buses from Sungam depot were being operated on this route, hence, the crew was directed to bring their buses to Gandhipuram instead of Mettupalayam road bus stand. Buses to these destinations were operated from platform no. 2 at Gandhipuram moffusil bus stand, the official said. But sources said that officials failed to display any sort of communication at Mettupalayam bus stand about shifting of the buses to Gandhipuram.
Meanwhile, S. Udhayakumar, Regional Transport Officer (Coimbatore Central), in a communication said that the buses operated towards Sathyamangalam route were shifted to Mettupalayam bus stand on February 12, 2015, after flyover works began. Since the flyover was thrown open to the public on November 1, buses would be operated from Gandhipuram bus stand. All moffusil buses operated towards Sathyamangalam should be operated on the flyover on either directions. However, buses from the town bus stand should take the service road, exit at the roundabout and then proceed on the flyover towards Ganapathy. In the return direction they can use the service road on the side of the flyover and reach town bus stand.