Private buses to be operated from October 1 in Erode

With the State government relaxing norms for operating buses, private bus operators have announced that buses would be from October 1.

Due to lockdown, bus services were stopped in the third week of March and resumed from June 1. However, due to a spike in cases, services were stopped for a month and resumed on September 7. But, private bus operators wanted permission for operating buses to full capacity of seats and also wanted road tax waiver and refused to commence operations. Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Limited (TNSTC) resumed operations while private buses were off the roads.

There are 268 private buses in the district of which 40 were operated within the district while 248 were operated to other districts. Since private bus operators in Salem, Tiruppur and Coimbatore had resumed services this week, private bus operators also decided to resume the service.

Palanisamy, president of Erode Private Bus Owners’ Association, said that commuters were affected due to non-operation of private buses and the demands of the associations were taken up with the State government.