After a gap of five months, bus services from Madurai to other districts resumed on Monday.
A senior official of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (Madurai division) said 1,184 buses were operated in the division on the first day. Madurai division covers Theni, Dindigul, Virudhunagar and Madurai districts.
“Patronage was good for buses that were bound for Tiruchi, Coimbatore, Tirunelveli and Salem districts. While the patronage was good in the morning, it dipped from afternoon,” said another official.
The official said passengers and bus crew were instructed to wear face masks. They had to undergo thermal screening before boarding the buses. Only up to 60% of the seats were filled in order to ensure adequate space between passengers. The buses were disinfected after each trip, said the official.
An official of the State Express Transport Corporation (SETC) said 23 ultra-deluxe non-air-conditioned buses were operated from Madurai to Chennai on Monday. Each bus carried a maximum of 25 passengers, said the official.
Bus services attracted huge crowds in Tirunelveli. When buses started leaving for Thoothukudi, Nagercoil, Tenkasi, Kovilpatti, Sankarankovil, Rajapalayam and Madurai from Tirunelveli in the morning, the limited number of services could not match the demand.
Though passengers were seen wearing masks and cleaning their hands with sanitizer before boarding the buses, many of them did not bother about social distancing. All the buses leaving Tirunelveli carried a huge crowd and the crew were seen appealing to them to follow government-stipulated norms.
The crowds that disappeared after 10 a.m. thronged the buses again after 4.30 p.m.
The TNSTC operated 540 buses, including 301 buses that hit the road recently after relaxation in lockdown norms.
Private bus owners refrained from operating their vehicles, citing the restriction stipulated by the government on the maximum number of passengers at 23 as reason. They said it would seriously affect them.
The SETC operated 14 ultra-deluxe buses to various destinations with 24 passengers each.
In Virudhunagar district, around 120 mufossil buses started plying to different districts. These inter-district buses that were temporarily operated within Madurai zone had to be withdrawn in the last week of June after a spike in COVID-19 cases across the State.
Meanwhile, the number of town buses that were operated within various towns and within the district also rose to around 135. Sources said operation of inter-district buses led to increased patronage to buses.
