The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) will press into service 10 air-conditioned battery electric vehicles and 250 low-floor buses of the KURTC to ferry Ayyappa devotees on the Nilackal- Pampa- Nilackal route during the Mandalam -Makarailakku season in Sabarimala.
The battery electric vehicles will operate every two minutes and the low-floor ordinary buses every one minute from Nilackal to the Pampa KSRTC depot and back. “It will be a round-the-clock chain service as the government has decided not to allow private vehicles beyond the Nilackal base camp. KSRTC buses from the other depots will go up to the Pampa depot. Online reservation will commence on November 1,” KSRTC Chairman and Managing Director Tomin J. Thachankary told The Hindu .
The buses operating on the Nilackal-Pampa corridor would not have conductors and entry would be on validation of QR code. Tickets would have to be purchased online or from the KSRTC counters at Nilakkal or the kiosks there and at Sabarimala. Devotees could reserve bus tickets on the website of the Kerala Police while booking the virtual queue facility for darshan.
