Hundreds of people arrived at the M.G.R. bus stand at Mattuthavani here on Saturday, the day before Deepavali, to both board and deboard buses to reach their hometowns.
Many people from Madurai and other neighbouring southern districts like Virudhunagar, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram and others who have their workplace at Chennai and other tier 1 cities, returned even a day before the festival.
Many said that since the festival is on Sunday which is the second week of the month helped them reach their places the day before, which was not the case the previous years. They said they were able to plan accordingly in leisure due to weekend.
K. Parthiban, a native of Melur who studies in a private college in Tiruchi, said he was able to board buses to Madurai with no rush as most of the crowd chose either booked buses or trains.
“Even when there was a considerable crowd at bus stands, it was not a tiring one,” he added.
A couple from Chennai said they were waiting for a bus to go to Ramanathapuram. “Due to my nature of the job, I was not able to plan for the travel beforehand. But, we were able to get a bus from Chennai after waiting for around 20 minutes which was better compared to the previous years,” they added.
“Though the bus stand was jam-packed, we found buses to board as it was better organised,” they said.
S. Muneeswaran, a supervisor at TNSTC, said, “There was crowd throughout Friday night, as people both boarded and deboarded buses. But on Saturday, there was less crowd, owing to the weekend.”
As around 30 to 40 extra buses each were arranged for all the branches like Virudhunagar, Sivaganga, and Madurai, they were able to manage the rush, he added.
Since most of the people after the festival would be returning to their workplaces, TNSTC officials said, they have arranged buses in a similar way. “We hope we can efficiently control the crowd and make it seamless for them,” he added.
Omnibuses and private buses in a similar way have been arranged for extra trips, so it would reduce half the crowd using the government buses.
The TNSTC officials said that the Transport Department had planned to ply extra buses well in advance that it had enabled them to implement it with ease.
Moreover, online reservation for all major destinations helped them assess the volume of passenger traffic and vehicles required in advance.
The Regional Transport Authority had directed all the RTOs and the Motor Vehicle Inspectors to keep a tab on the movement of omnibuses and the fare charged from the passengers.
Similarly, after the Deepavali celebration, the officials have been instructed to monitor private bus operators at vantage locations across the State, they added.
Published - November 11, 2023 06:57 pm IST
