150 spl buses help people head back to hometowns

Coimbatore: Close on the heels of the state government’s announcement on the complete lockdown from Monday, the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) has started operating special buses to provide uninterrupted and comfortable service to the people travelling to other cities.
About 150 special buses were operated from the Coimbatore region, which comprises Tirupur, Erode, Nilgirs and Coimbatore districts, on Saturday. Of them 50 vehicles were operated from Coimbatore alone. Moderate crowd was seen at the bus stands, including the ones at Singanallur and Gandhipuram, since the morning.
A TNSTC official said, “Buses will be operated without any restrictions till Monday 4am. As we are expecting a rise in the number of passengers travelling to other districts, we have increased the number of mofussil buses from the city by 50.” While 1,015 buses are being operated in the district, 675 of them are town buses.
Pointing out that there was a huge demand for the buses to Madurai, Trichy, Theni and Salem, the official said they had increased the service to these districts and buses were running with full seating capacity.
“Our average revenue per kilometre was just Rs 16.5-Rs 16 for town buses and Rs 17 for mofussil buses as on Friday. The revenue generated through mofussil buses is expected to go up by 30%-40% in two days, because of the rise in footfalls. While the own buses are also seeing a rise in passenger traffic, the same is yet to be reflected in the revenue as free ride is provided to women travellers,” the official said.
He said they used to earn Rs 27 to Rs 28 per kilometre before the lockdown. “In the past few months, it remained at Rs 22. After the night curfew was introduced, the earnings had dipped to Rs 18 per kilometre. During non-peak hours, it goes down to Rs 10 to Rs 12.”
Some private buses have also recorded a sudden rise in the last-minute booking shortly after the complete lockdown was announced. A private bus authority said the booking had increased by 40% in the morning and most of the seats were filled for the first time in the past few weeks.