After partial resumption of private bus operations in Coimbatore district, over 90% of the total fleet of will be operated from October.
According to V. Duraikannan, president of Coimbatore District Bus Owners Association (South), out of the total 330 private buses, only around 20% (60 town and 15 mofussil buses ) resumed operations in the district earlier this month. Many private bus operators have submitted stoppage forms at the respective Regional Transport Offices as their buses were off the roads for over three months and they would prefer to begin operations from October 1 so that they did not have to pay the monthly road tax for September, Mr. Duraikannan said.
COVID-19 precautionary measures such as allowing passengers only if they wear masks, provision of hand sanitisers to passengers and wearing of masks and gloves by the drivers and conductors are being implemented in all the private buses, he said
However, the occupancy in and earnings of the private buses now on roads remained too low, forcing some operators to meet the daily operational expenses from of their own pockets, he said.
“Most of the buses end up earning only around ₹ 1,500 at the end of a day, which cannot be enough to cover the fuel expenses along with the salaries of the drivers and conductors,” he said. The public remained hesitant to travel in buses amid the COVID-19 situation, he said.
Echoing these views, G. Nagaraj, who operates three buses in Coimbatore, said his buses had not seen any increase in occupancy in the past two weeks. “The public seem to prefer auto rickshaws or share autos to buses,” he claimed.
A Regional Transport Officer (RTO) from the city said that all six RTOs in the district were monitoring the private buses and no complaints of violation of COVID-19 norms had been received as of Friday. “We have conducted meetings with private bus operators and instructed them on [following] the precautionary measures,” he said.
