Pothole-filled roads are literally bleeding public transport system in the city with the sole exception being the Kochi metro, which has emerged the inadvertent beneficiary of the chaos on roads.
From KSRTC and private buses to autorickshaws and online cabs, absolutely no service is spared even as the Onam season festivities have brought people in droves to roads further worsening the situation.
For the already cash-strapped KSRTC, the disruption of schedules owing to nightmarish roads could not have come at a worse time considering that Onam is one of the peak seasons when the public sector behemoth’s revenue collections soar.
“The delay caused by bad roads and accompanying traffic logjams has thrown a spanner in our operations. For instance, services to Thrissur are running almost two hours behind the running time thanks to the delay in crossing Aluva, while services headed in the Kottayam direction are exhausting their running time by the time they cross Thripunithura after wading through the traffic clog,” a senior KSRTC official told The Hindu.
KSRTC is trying hard to avoid cancellation of city trips as much as possible except on occasions when trips towards the end are so delayed that operating them become meaningless, the official said.
Trip cancellation
Private bus operators complain that trip cancellations have become common owing to the time wasted on roads.
“Buses which used to run 260 km a day on an average are now plying around 120 km or less a day. The messy roads have so disrupted the services that bus employees often have to go without lunch breaks,” said M.B. Sathyan, State president, Kerala State Private Bus Operators’ Federation.
Increased maintenance cost, broken leaves, and deflated tyres being the most common problems have added to the misery of operators. Mr. Sathyan accused official apathy in not repairing the Ponnurunni underpass forcing buses to go up to Chakkaraparambu and take a U-turn en route to the Vyttila Mobility Hub adding to fuel cost.
Autorickshaw operators complain that despite the festive season rush, their revenue has almost halved. “There is now a big disparity between income and expenses owing to increased maintenance and reduced trips,” said V.V. Praveen, State committee member of the CITU-affiliated Auto Taxi Drivers’ Federation.
The lone silver lining amid the angst has been the increased passenger patronage of the Kochi metro. In the six days since it extended services to Thykoodam on September 3, the total ridership kept soaring from 39,336 to 65,285, 71,711, 83,032, 95,285, and 89,133 respectively.