The State Public Transport Department (APPTD) found itself under immense pressure trying to operate its services to rural areas in the wake of heavy rains caused by Cyclone Michaung on December 5 (Tuesday).
While urban services mostly remained unaffected, the rural routes posed a major challenge for the public carrier on Tuesday, as several panchayat routes remained cut off due to overflowing rivers and tanks.
Bus services from Nellore towards Chennai remained disrupted as water from the Kalangi river flowed on to the Kolkata–Chennai national highway between Naidupeta and Tada. However, the bus services from Tirupati to Chennai via Nagalapuram and Uthukota was not affected.
APPTD authorities had to suspend operations from Gudur in view of water stagnation in their bus depot. There were no operations on Tuesday in the Satyavedu-Pandur route and Satyavedu-Uthukota (Tamil Nadu border) route as water overflowed near Rajulakandriga village.
“Of the 890 buses in the eleven depots in Tirupati district, as many as 391 remained confined to the bus stations or depots in view of the cyclone. This impacted services in 32 routes”, said APPTD Regional Manager (Tirupati) T. Chengal Reddy.
Passengers had a miraculous escape when the roof of a bus was blown away due to heavy gales near Podalakur, which forced the officials to withdraw services from Vakadu. Due to the disruption in train and air services, the department plied 25 additional services to Chennai, two to Hyderabad on Monday and is fully geared up to operate more services if needed.
“Though the rain has stopped, we have directed our drivers not to take risks in view of overflowing water bodies, uprooted trees and heavy gales. Enough instructions have been given to the field crew to ensure that there is no inconvenience to the passengers, nor to the buses”, Mr. Reddy added.
