After nearly two months, and albeit a slow start, the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation’s buses on Tuesday were pressed into service across the State, except in Hyderabad.
In accordance with Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s announcement on Monday, bus services began around 6 am. While the Jubilee Bus Station was open to passengers travelling to the districts, the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station, which largely operates inter-state services, was not operating any buses. While passengers who wanted to travel to destinations along the Kamareddy route did start trickling into the JBS in the morning, apart from this brief buzz in activity, the station wore a sleepy look. Passenger activity was low throughout the day.
As drivers and conductors readied buses and began to park them on platforms, they ensured that passengers who had arrived had face masks on. Many drivers and conductors were given sanitisers which they administered to passengers.
“We have been told to check whether passengers are wearing mask. If they are not, we have been told not to allow them to get into the bus,” a conductor at the JBS said and added that limited tickets were being issued to enforce social distancing.
While the staff expressed satisfaction with the resumption of bus services, they rued that the number of passers was much lower than they had expected. “See for yourself. We are making sure that there is distance between passengers when they are seated. On other days, the buses would be packed,” he said.
A senior TSRTC official said that apart from activity attributed to passengers travelling on the Kamareddy route, the response on the first day of resumption of services was low. As compared to operations during pre-COVID-19 times, the TSRTC operated around 45% of services.
Touching upon occupancy, he said, “We will get a clear picture of the occupancy tomorrow, but from what it appears the occupancy is around 30%. This could be due to various factors. First, the announcement of resumption came last night. So, there was little time for passengers to prepare. Secondly, the concern over coronavirus is still lingering. We are expecting that occupancy will improve in two or three days,” he said.