Bus commuters were left to sweat it out after the State Transport Corporation withdrew AC bus services to Chennai. This, at a time when temperatures came close to 43 degrees Celsius.
The commuters were informed by a notice that the buses were taken off the road for maintenance. There was no official word on when the service would resume.
According to the commuters two air-conditioned buses, one from Lovelorn and another from Tiruvannamalai, were introduced in March this year. Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami flagged off 500 new buses from the Secretariat then, they said.
AC buses a boon
It is a boon for those who travel to places like Sriperumbudur, Poonamallee and CMBT Koyambedu on a daily basis, commuters from Vellore and Katpadi said.
After the inauguration, commuters were able to travel from Chennai to Vellore and Tiruvannamalai.
A State government official, said:
“The ticket fare of regular air conditioned buses was ₹1.4 per km. However, in these two ultra-deluxe AC buses, passengers were charged ₹1 per km . In addition, ₹10 was added to the current tariff. The buses ran twice (four single trips) either ways and were full on most of the trips.”
Private players
“We were hoping for such buses to Tirupati, Krishnagiri and Bengaluru. It gives rise to suspicion that the officials may be paving the way for private operators to enter this sector,” a commuter said.