THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as the tussle between the KSRTC CMD Tomin Thachankary and employees’ unions is on, Transport Minister A K Saseendran made it categorically clear the government cannot accept all the proposals put forth by the CMD. With this the differences between the government and management have come out in the open. At the launch of the Chill bus service on Wednesday, the minister made an apparent reference to protests by employees’ unions and said, “The government will not support the management in all steps taken by them. Only those initiatives which are in favour of the employees and passengers will get the government’s green signal.” The first bus service from Thampanoor to Ernakulam via Kottayam was flagged off by the minister.
Saseendran said KSRTC was committed towards serving all sections of people, in spite of the difficulties it faced. Focusing on bus schedules and the crew management and efficiency the corporation has started the Chill service. With the success of the services, which operate every one hour, the next step will be to deploy these buses every 15 minutes.To reduce the traffic congestion at Thampanoor and East Fort, a proposal to construct a bus depot at Enchakkal was suggested long back, which is still pending. “Enchakkal bus depot re-construction should be actively considered by the government and the corporation. The bus depot should be used to park AC Volvo buses and Chill buses,” said MLA V S Sivakumar.
A total of 87 buses will be deployed for Chill services in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikode. In Thiruvananthapuram, 17 schedules have been designated for the service every 1 hour. Maximum buses will provide services from Ernakulam. The buses will begin its service from three major depots during morning hours at a gap of every 1 hour and night services will be operated every 2 hours.
Earlier, there was a delay in long-distance services as the crew members take 3-4 hours of rest after reaching the destination before returning. “The crew from Thiruvananthapuram after reaching Ernakulam can rest there and another crew member will bring it back to the capital. This is for the first time the management is taking such a step to maintain the bus schedule for the convenience of the passengers,” said KSRTC CMD Tomin J Thachankary.