The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Town bus facility demanded for Lalapet

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Monday, Dec 14, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Town bus facility demanded for Lalapet

L. Renganathan

Traders to down shutters on December 23 if demand not met

KULITHALAI: Irked over the continued neglect of their demand for more bus services through Lalapet, residents and traders have threatened to stage yet another stir to highlight the plight and force the officials and the elected representatives to look into their grievance.

Bus connectivity that has remained curtailed severely since the opening of the road over bridge last January. Following persistent demand from the road users who were forced to wait for long hours at the traffic bottleneck created by the railway level crossing, the bridge was constructed there.

While the RoB ended the trouble and wait of commuters, it opened another set of woes for Lalapet residents _ the closed railway gate meant that the local public’s routine work was disturbed.

Their access to the Cauvery river from bathing to funeral was denied.

Bus traffic and the inordinate delay at the gate that made Lalapet traders thrive in the situation got altered. In fact, the profile of Lalapet Bazaar changed entirely and now it resembled a bombed town. Buses hardly come into the Main Bazaar area.

A couple of services do touch Lalapet but that hardly could meet the demand of the public.

Reconciled to the fact that the closed railway gate would never be opened, now the Lalapet residents are seeking more frequent bus services so that more than 30,000 population from four panchayats would benefit.

Kallappalli, Chinthalavadi, Karupattur and Pillapalayam panchayats have been greatly hit due to the gate closure. At present, all the buses skirt the town and ply via the RoB and halt at Lalapet outer. That hardly serves the cause of the elderly, the weak, the infirm and the children who could not run to catch the buses by crossing the gate and accessing the riverside bus stop there.

“What we are now asking is very simple. Extend the town bus services being operated between Karur and Mahadanapuram to touch Lalapet. Also direct Musiri/Kulithalai and Pazhaya Jayamkondam/Mayanur services to touch Karupattur and Lalapet Bazaar.

The officials should make arrangements to operate mini bus services connecting Lalapet, Magilipatti and Punavasipatti so that people from the interior could come to Lalapet for purchases,” observe S. Murugan, a tailor, and G. Ananthan who owns a grocery shop.

Trading has been severely hit due to dwindling patronage from the nearby villages.

To highlight their demand, the traders of Lalapet have decided to down shutters on December 23, if their requirement is not met.

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