With the government easing lockdown norms, operation of additional buses for the staff of government departments commenced on Monday.
When around 50 Tirunelveli Collectorate staff and the staff of Department of Public Health were waiting for the special buses at Thoothukudi old bus stand on Monday morning, the public health department staff were asked to board the first bus leaving for Tirunelveli while the waiting staff affiliated to other departments were taken in the second bus.
After dropping a few staff at Vallanaadu, Vasavappapuram and the Tirunelveli District Court, Samadhanapuram, Palayamkottai bus stand, all en route, and also at Vaeinthaankulam new bus-stand, the second bus reached Tirunelveli Collectorate at 9.45 a.m.
While ₹ 50 is being collected as fare in the Thoothukudi-Tirunelveli point-to-point bus service and ₹ 35 in the Limited Stop Service, ₹ 45 was collected in the special bus from the government staff.
Similarly, special buses were operated from Radhapuram, Papanasam, Tenkasi and Sankarankovil to the Tirunelveli Collectorate. Since, no bus was operated to Tirunelveli from Nagercoil and Tiruchendur, the government employees travelling in these routes had to look for other modes of transport to reach their offices on time.
In all these special buses, the fare was collected in cash. In these buses with ‘3 + 2’ seating arrangements, the commuters were seated in ‘2 + 1’ format to ensure physical distancing though the mandatory norm went for a toss while they boarded the buses at respective boarding points.
As the Department of School Education has decided to conduct the SSLC examination from June 1, heads of most of the government and the government-aided schools informally instructed their teachers to be ready to report for duty on May 21. Since more than 250 teachers would have to travel between Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Thoothukudi and Kanniyakumari districts, special buses should be operated for the teachers also, the teachers feel.
