Thoothukudi District Collector K. Senthil Raj visited the Kovilpatti new bus stand on Friday as the buses halted on the 4-lane national highway for dropping or taking the passengers often lead to accidents.
Though the new bus stand of Kovilpatti on Kanniyakumari–Madurai 4-lane national highway came into operation in 2007, buses would drop or take passengers while being stopped on the main road instead of the bus stand which resulted in accidents.
On February 24, when a woman government employee working in Madurai got down from the Tamil Nadu State Corporation bus which was stopped on the main road, she was fatally injured while trying to cross the busy road.
In a bid to put an end to the accidents, Dr. Senthil Raj visited the bus terminus to explore possibilities of making it mandatory for all the buses to enter the new bus-stand or stopping buses only on the service roads to drop or take passengers. The Collector said a four-member team including the Revenue Divisional Officer, Regional Transport Officer, Deputy Superintendent of Police and an official from National Highways Authority of India will submit its report on averting accidents near the Kovilpatti new bus-stand.
“We’ve given due instructions to the transport officials to inform the bus drivers to drop or take passengers only after entering the service road instead of the highway. The State Express Transport Corporation buses should drop or take passengers only inside the bus-stand. Additional circular service buses to connect the old and the new bus-stands will be operated,” he said.
