CHENNAI: Commuters, who book tickets through the official portal of the state transport corporation will now get text alerts with the mobile number of the conductor who travels in the bus.
The State transport department launched the service for the buses operated by the State Express Transport Corporation (SETC) on Sunday. The initiative is expected to provide a huge relief to commuters from the last-minute hassle in boarding pass-through buses and originating buses. “On an average, at least two passengers fail to board a bus on time at the designated points across Tamil Nadu.
The number goes up during festivals and weekends. As soon as the conductor’s name is enrolled in the roster at depots, a text message with his number will be sent to passengers, at least two hours before the departure,” a senior official of the SETC told Express. The SETC buses that originate at Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Salem, Tiruchy, and Bengaluru have two to three boarding points within the city.
“When a passenger could not reach the boarding point on time due to unavoidable circumstances, he/she can directly call conductor and inform him about their boarding at alternative points or can inform him about their arrival time. Besides, those who board the bus at the on-the-way bus stops, can also get the arrival time from conductors and plan accordingly,” explained the officer. The text alerts will be sent to commuters, who book the tickets online for the SETC service. “Depending on the commuter response, the service will be extended to the TNSTC buses as well,” said an official of the Transport department.
The text message is welcomed by the regular commuters. The model message reads as follows: “TNSTC: PNR:Txxxxxxx, DOJ: 20/08/2018, Pickup Pt:Tirunelveli - 20:30 Hrs,Conductor Mobile No.: 9787XXXXX. Happy Journey.” S Ganesh of Madurai, a regular commuter, who received the text alert, has welcomed the move. “So far, without any value addition to service, commuters have been charged somewhere between ` 20 to `30 additionally for online tickets. The move will help commuters retrieve their properties in case they missed it during travel,” he added.
With 22 depots including those Thiruvananthapuram, the SETC has fleet strength of 1,035 buses. It caters for the routes above 300 km connecting Chennai with various parts of Tamil Nadu including Tiruchy, Madurai, Tirunelveli and Tirupur, Kollam, Nagapattinam, Thanjavur and Velankannai. The SETC also offers bus services that connect Tamil Nadu with southern states such as Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra.
Tickets can be booked through official portal: http://www.tnstc.in.
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Commuters get the text message with the mobile number of conductor two or three hours before departure of the bus
Introduced for SETC buses for tickets booked online (http://www.tnstc.in)
Expected to provide huge relief to commuters from the last-minute hassle in boarding the buses
On an average, 2 passengers miss the bus at last minute
Commuters welcome the move, but say the TNSTC also charges extra fare without adding any value to service
Online tickets can be booked for TNSTC and SETC buses
Private omnibuses send texts with office numbers