With just a few days left for Pongal, people started returning to their natives as trains and special buses were crowded here on Wednesday.
Pongal falls on Friday and Mattu Pongal on Sunday while Thaipusam falls on January 18. Since the State government declared local holiday for government offices and educational institutions on January 17, people working in other districts have started returning to their native from Wednesday. Since colleges remain closed due to COVID-19, students had already returned to their home town as the crowd was less till the evening. Special buses operated from Chennai and other districts had good patronage throughout the day. Since most of the scheduled trains were fully booked, Erode Railway Junction was crowded on Wednesday.
In Salem, the new bus stand was busy from Wednesday afternoon, as special buses from Chennai, Madurai and south-bound buses were operated on full capacity. The Salem Division of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) is operating special buses to Coimbatore, Madurai, Karur, and Tiruchi for the Pongal and people started utilising the services from Wednesday. Officials said that crowd movement will be high on Thursday and they are ready for operating the special buses as scheduled.
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