Kerala - Kochi   

Harrowing time for commuters

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: Friday was yet another agonising day for Kochiites and those commuting to the city for work, as the State-wide private bus strike entered the third day.

Many school and college students and office-goers preferred to stay back home. Buses, mini-buses, jeeps and even mini-lorries were overcrowded. Youths travelled on bus tops or precariously clung on the ladder.

The worst hit were people who come to the city daily for jobs. Traffic snarls were the order of the day at junctions and on arterial roads.

Policemen had a tough job regulating traffic. With people taking out their cars and two-wheelers, noise pollution and air pollution were high in the city. Nine of the 25 KSRTC buses which were brought from Thiruvananthapuram to conduct additional services in Ernakulam, plied to places like Fort Kochi, Edakochi, Piravom, Thalayolaparambu and Vaikom. The other buses are awaited in a day or two. However, there were complaints that as KSRTC ran chain services, people had to wait for long to get buses.

Meanwhile, general secretary of the Private Bus Thozhilali Federation (AITUC) Joy Joseph said the State Samara Samithy of bus workers would meet in Ernakulam on Monday.

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