KOCHI: Taking into consideration the sentiments of the public, the KURTC, a wing of the KSRTC, will soon roll out a couple of low-floor services in the Thiruvananthapuram-Nedumbassery airport circuits. According to officials with the KSRTC, the proposal to start the low-floor services was submitted after authorities studied the demand between the two prime airports in the state.
“We already have services between Nedumbassery airport and Kozhikode (Karipur airport) and the patronage in these buses are very high. Currently, those who get down at Nedumbassery airport have to travel till the Ernakulam bus stand and then take a bus towards Thiruvananthapuram. It was based on this, that the officials have mooted introducing a straight service between these two airports. Once we receive the approval from Thiruvananthapuram, we will immediately roll out the buses which will also add revenue to the KURTC,” said Ajeevkumar, inspector-in-charge of KURTC at Thevara.
Several low-floor buses have been pulled out of service ever since the floods.
According to officials, they have curtailed AC low-floor services between Ernakulam and Munnar, owing to the poor condition of the roads.
“We ran at least eight services towards Munnar on a daily basis. However, ever since the floods, we had to withdraw all the low-floor buses as most of the roads are still in bad condition. Though many other inter-state tourist buses are traversing the route, our buses faced a lot of damage to the engines especially since its flooring is very low. The windows also had cracks,” said Ernakulam DTO Suresh.
The KSRTC had recently started the ‘Chill Bus’ service which connects the entire state with its low-floor AC bus fleet.
According to officials, the aim of the project is to connect major cities and districts at regular intervals.
The decision to start the service was based on reports that the KSRTC, which has a fleet size of 219 low-floor AC buses, has not been effectively using its fleet.