Night schedule of long distance buses to change in Tamil Nadu

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Chennai, April 19 (IANS) The Tamil Nadu state transport corporation is to alter the services of long distance buses which generally ply after 7 p.m. With the surge in Covid cases, the department will be altering the services of these buses to morning time instead of overnight and late night travels.

The State Express Transport Corporation (SETC) will also face logistical difficulties in running the bus services during day time as the drivers and other staff will not find buses and conveyances to get back home if the service ends by 10 p.m. or later.

Interestingly train services throughout Tamil Nadu are functioning at night and the State Transport Corporation officials find it difficult to ply long distance buses only during day times.

Karuppusamy Mathivarnan, an employee with the State Transport Corporation while speaking to IANS said, "The State Transport is now cancelling night services and instead operating morning schedules. This is erratic and will cause a lot of problems for drivers like us who have to drive a bus for around 300 km and then come back home. How to come back as there won't be any night services and this means either we are provided accommodation or we have to find our own accommodation. This is causing problems to drivers like us."

Private bus operators are also confused over the new rules brought out by the State transport corporation which will naturally have to be followed by the private operators also. There are around 4,000 private bus services and a majority of these are operated at night in Tamil Nadu catering to passengers in the Northern part and Western parts of the atate from Chennai.

Bus operator association leader M. Muthuvel while speaking to IANS said, "There are around 2 lakh bus employees and the association is struggling to make up for the huge losses which we have incurred during the last Covid surge. The new restrictions are not practical at all and people never prefer day travel in the scorching heat and will cancel their trips creating further problems for us."

The Tamil Nadu Taxi operators are also a worried lot following the restrictions as most of the passengers were commuting during night time and if night restrictions are enforced naturally, people will stop travelling.

--IANS

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