The services of over 100 buses from the Goshree islands that halt their trip at High Court Junction could be extended to city routes, according to a tentative report readied by Thiruvananthapuram-based National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC).
These buses often wait for an hour or so at the junction, before their return trip. Their service can be extended to MG Road, Kaloor or even Kakkanad and Vyttila depending on their time slots, following which they can return to High Court Junction and proceed back to the isles. The Kochi Metropolitan Transport Authority (KMTA) and Regional Transport Authority (RTA) would have to take a call on which all buses ought to be permitted into the city, it is learnt.
The KMTA had vested NATPAC with the task of conducting a study on the city extension of the approximately 200 buses that operated in the corridor in 2021, following widespread protests over buses from the isles being denied entry into the city. A final report by NATPAC is expected to be readied shortly, following which it will be handed over to KMTA in March.
The study was done by doing an origin-destination survey, by collating the opinion of commuters from the isles who come to the city in different modes of transport. Currently, islanders who depend on buses ought to disembark at High Court Junction and rely on buses and other modes of commute to reach their destination, spending extra time and money.
Only 78 of the about 200 buses which operated from the isles are operating regular trips (320 trips) in the corridor now. Once the final report is ready, a stakeholder meeting, including of bus operators, police and MVD personnel, would be convened to decide on permitting these buses into the city, sources said.
KMTA meeting
In the meantime, the KMTA’s director board meeting that is slated to be held on February 22 is expected to discuss among other matters, the rationalisation of bus routes in the Greater Kochi area, for which mapping was done for over 10,000 km. An interim report on this is expected to be readied by April.
The meeting would also discuss issues that need to be surmounted to ready a parking policy for the city. Efforts are also under way to ready a static time table for buses. All buses ought to be installed with GPS for readying a dynamic time table, sources said.
