To make bus services more accessible to the passengers from the city, all inter-state buses of the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, Tamil Nadu State Road Transport Corporation and the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) will soon be re-routed through the Vyttila Mobility Hub.
The order to this effect was passed by the Road Transport Authority last week based on a proposal by the Vyttila Mobility Hub Society.
Currently, these buses, which begin service from the Ernakulam KSRTC depot, ply through Kaloor, Palarivattom and hit the National Highway through the bypass. Once the order comes to effect, the buses will not enter the city. The buses will take the Valanjambalam-Panampilly Nagar-Kadavanthra-Vyttila route. This will curb the congestion and the traffic at the North RoB. The decision to divert the buses through the hub was taken based on the recommendations by the passengers to the Hub Society.
“Since the Hub has become a major connection site, people find it easier to avail themselves of the services from Vyttila. Most of the recommendations were from Bangalore-based passengers,” said Vyttila Mobility Hub assistant executive engineer Simon.
Ernakulam ATO P S Rajakumar said that a few buses have already started plying through the Hub on a trial basis. “The Karnataka state buses have already started entering the Hub. However, a final decision about the stops and the route will be held only after talks with the City police to ensure that there are no traffic issues,” Rajakumar said. Currently, nine Karnataka buses start their services from the Ernakulam depot.
Rajakumar said two KSRTC buses will also be re-routed through Vyttila.
Protest
The KSRTC drivers and conductors have expressed strong oppositions against the new regulations citing that they will have to travel an extra four kilometres unnecessarily through the city.
Meanwhile, the authorities are yet to decide on the stoppage points for the KSRTC buses at Edappally. “Earlier, since the buses were plying through Kaloor, the buses used to stop near the Edappally Church.
However, once the new order is implemented, the buses would have to stop either at the Edappally bypass or near a mall at Edappally. Since both the stops are unfeasible, we will have to come up with another suitable one. This will be decided after holding discussions with the Traffic Police,” Rajakumar said.
However, the issue of a stop at Edappally will not affect the Karnataka State Road Transport buses as they did not have any stop at Edappally in the past.
Source: New Indian Express
