Clad in the ubiquitous black dress and carrying Irumudi on their shoulders, the milling crowd of pilgrims who flocked the railway and bus stations in Kottayam over the past one month is breathing a new life into a crisis-hit Kerala State Transport Corporation (KSRTC) in Kottayam.
With only a few days left for the annual pilgrim season in Sabarimala to conclude, the Corporation has already clocked a revenue of ₹1.60 crore from its Sabarimala special services. The agency, which currently operates 80 schedules in the Kottayam-Erumeli-Pampa sector with a fleet of 35 buses, has so far transported around 10.80 lakh pilgrims on both directions.
The latest figures, according to KSRTC officials, mark a quantum jump over the numbers clocked during the same period last year. The total income from the trouble-hit season last year, for instance, was just ₹1.10 lakh while the number of passengers stood just over 1.19 lakh.
Over 50% of the total pilgrims , who have depended on the service so far, are non-Keralites, who reach Kottayam on board the various inter-State trains.
“We are having a really tough time in managing the rush as the arrival of devotees in the season has been well beyond the expected levels. As requested earlier, we have been allotted an additional fleet of ten buses since December 14 but as the influx continue unceasing, we are forced to operate additional services from Erumeli by diverting buses in between their normal schedules,” Abdul Salam, District Transport Officer, Kottayam.
The official, meanwhile, appeared clueless as to how the KSRTC was going to meet the pilgrim flow during the Makaravilakku festival.
Meanwhile, the revenue from the special services has taken the average daily income of the corporation to ₹15 lakh , which stood around ₹9 lakh at the beginning of the season. The Corporation recently cut down over a hundred of its schedulesfollowing termination of M-Panel employees.
