The Hindu : Kerala News : Lack of facilities at bus terminals

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Thursday, Jun 05, 2008
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Kerala

Kerala

Lack of facilities at bus terminals

Anand Haridas

Photo: Vipin Chandran

MONSOON-HIT: People waiting for bus at the Ernakulam KSRTC stand on a rainy day.

KOCHI: The mood at bus terminals remains the same, come sunshine or rain. The same anxious look over faces. The wait for the right bus. It remained the same, even as the city grew exponentially outside.

The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation is putting up a brave front to handle the situation. “We are operating 73 services from this terminal daily, apart from buses towards Thiruvananthapuram side in every 15 minutes and towards Thrissur side in every 10 minutes,” said Joseph Stanley, General Control Inspector at the Ernakulam KSRTC stand.

For a terminal that handles this much of traffic round-the-clock, the tension could be immense. No wonder the terminal never sleeps. And now, the authorities are planning to operate 18 new services, mostly on the Kottayam and Guruvayur routes.

Extra services

“We operate additional services, depending on the demand by passengers.

This happens mostly on Saturday evenings,” said Mr. Stanley.

While the authorities claim enough facilities, including safety aspects, for passengers at the KSRTC bus terminal, the condition of the private bus terminal is in sharp contrast. No one – be it passengers, operators or authorities – seem to be happy with what they have now. And no development work is going on.

“There is absolutely no facility at the Kaloor bus terminal. Though nearly 270 buses pass through the stand daily, there is space for parking hardly 20 buses and no resting facilities for employees. The condition is pathetic,” said M.B. Satyan, general secretary of Ernakulam District Private Bus Operators’ Association.

The condition is almost the same at Tripunithura bus terminal as well, the operators complain. “With the government decision on handing over land at Vytilla for construction of the new terminal pending, there is nothing much we can do about the Kaloor bus terminal,” said C.K. Manisankar, Deputy Mayor, Kochi Corporation.

The Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA), which initially mooted the concept of an integrated bus terminal at Vytilla, convened a meeting of MLAs and civic authorities to evolve a political consensus on the issue. That was a couple of months ago and nothing has happened since then.

After the Bus Operator Association’s demand to utilise the space occupied by the slaughterhouse for expanding the bus terminal fell on deaf ears, they are now planning to prepare a detailed outlay for an alternative for the existing system at Kaloor.

This project will be presented before the Corporation and the GCDA soon, said Mr. Satyan.

With the monsoon gathering strength, the hardships of passengers will only increase. Compared with the plight of passengers at the Kaloor bus terminal, those at the KSRTC bus stand were better. But not for long.

As one of the owners of the nine shops in the building said, a good rain will flood the complex in no time. It was only the other day that packets of chips were seen floating around the bus terminal.

With little option left, passengers put up with the hardship and wait for the right bus. They had been doing it all this while. And they will continue doing it for long.

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