After a gap of over five months, the main transport hubs of Chennai -- Dr. MGR Bus Terminus, Dr. MGR Chennai Central Station and Egmore Railway Station -- sprang back to life after intra-state bus and train services began from Monday morning.
Bus and train services stood cancelled with the lockdown in March, and the usually bustling transport hubs had fallen silent. However on Monday morning, passengers were once more queueing up, and the usual announcements about trains started blaring inside the railway stations.
A total of 11 trains will be operated from the two railway stations from Monday. The first train from Dr. MGR Chennai Central left for Coimbatore at 6.10 a.m. and a train to Tiruchi left at 8 a.m. from Egmore. Elaborate safety arrangements were made at the stations. “We had installed thermal scanner cameras and passengers were screened before being allowed to enter the stations. Only those with masks were allowed to board the trains and they had to walk to their respective compartments in a line maintaining physical distancing,” said a Railway Protection Force officer.
Inside, passengers wore masks and were maintaining physical distancing. Some brought their own sanitsers and disinfected the seats before occupying them. “Our main concern is about the toilets. They should be disinfected after every use. But it feels good to travel in a train. Last month I spent a hefty amount to go to Tiurchi in a car,” said S. Gnanmuthu, who was on board a train to Tiruchi from Egmore.
Bus services too, begin
Meanwhile inter-district bus services also resumed on Monday morning from 6 a.m. Close to 30 buses were operated to different districts including Madurai, Cuddalore, Salem and other parts of the state up until early afternoon. “My temperature reading was taken at the entrance and once before boarding the bus,” said M. Vijay, a passenger.
Only 24 passengers were allowed to board a bus. “All the seats were numbered and the conductor gave sanitisers to the commuters once they got inside the vehicle. One disappointment was the lack of shops on the premises. Even the Aavin milk counter was closed,” said M. Bhagyalakshmi, another passenger who was at the CMBT terminus.
Senior State Express Transport Corporation officials said that they are initially operating only 524 buses out of the fleet strength of 1,082. “On Tuesday there was not much of a crowd. We will increase the number of services once passenger traffic increases,” said the official.
Villupuram division
The Villupuram Division of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC), comprising 10 districts including Villupuram, Cuddalore and Kallakurichi, operated around 1,400 buses on the first day. Of these, 271 buses were operated from Villupuram and Kallakurichi districts and 183 from Cuddalore district. The services resumed at around 5.30 a.m. from 13 depots.
A TNSTC official said that the buses constituted only 50% of the total fleet in the districts. The patronage was normal on the first day and the number of buses would be gradually increased in the coming days. With inter-State bus services continuing to remain suspended, passengers had to get down at the inter-State border at Gorimedu in Puducherry and board town buses operated by Puducherry to reach their destination.
An official said that TNSTC had written to the Puducherry government seeking permission to operate buses passing through the Union Territory as point-to-point services, but without stoppages in Puducherry. TNSTC has sought permission to ply 50 buses from Chennai to Cuddalore and Chidambaram via the East Coast Road through Puducherry as transit services.
Private buses continue to stay off the roads
Private buses continued to remain off the roads even though inter-district bus services were allowed to resume in the State on Monday.
The Federation of Bus Operators Associations of Tamil Nadu had earlier said that the operators will not be able to resume services until buses are allowed to operate to full seating capacity. Operating with only 60% occupancy will not be economically feasible, they maintained.
Confirming that private buses have not resumed operations on Monday, D.R. Dharmaraj, secretary, Federation of Bus Operators Associations of Tamil Nadu, hoped the State government would soon take a decision on their request to operate to full seating capacity.
About 4,500 private buses, all stage carriers, have permits to operate on mofussil and city routes across the State except in a few districts such as Chennai, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur.
