“For the benefit of the passengers who were visiting their native places, the State transport corporations would operate 9,543 buses to Chennai from various places across the State and 5,727 buses to other destinations from January 17 to 19,” said an official release from the transport department.

For the festival, as many as 5.06 lakh passengers travelled to the native places from the city on 10,276 buses from January 11 to 14, it said. As on date, 1.22 lakh passengers have booked their tickets. Of these, 45,275 tickets were booked for the journey from Chennai and the remaining 77,325 tickets were from other destinations. “Through the reservation of tickets, the State transport corporations have earned a revenue of Rs 5.46 crore,” it added.

Transport Minister MR Vijayabaskar has ordered operation of the buses strictly adhering to COVID-19 precautions, including the compulsory wearing of masks, maintaining social distancing and disinfecting buses after every trip. The buses were allowed to carry passengers for 100 per cent of their seating capacity. To decongest the CMBT, the bus services were operated from five termini located at Madhavaram, KK Nagar, Tambaram Arignar Anna bus terminus of MEPZ, Poonamallee and CMBT.

The Koyambedu bus terminus would be operating buses to Nagapattinam, Velankanni, Tiruchi, Madurai, Tirunelveli, Salem, and Coimbatore. Buses plying to Ponneri, Gummidipoondi and Uthokottai via Red Hills would be operated from Madhavaram new terminus. The buses plying via ECR to Puducherry, Cuddalore and Chidambaram would be operated from KK Nagar terminus.

The state public utilities have been operating special services to clear the festival rush and to enable hassle-free travel the public.