KOLLAM: The shifting of the Clock Tower bus stand at Chinnakkada to Aandamukkam is causing severe difficulties to the passengers as well as the bus operators, said the Quilon District Bus Operators Association.
Addressing a news conference here on Tuesday, Association general secretary Lawrence Babu said that the Corporation authorities took a unilateral decision to shift the bus stand without considering the problems involved.
He said that the Corporation had put up a board on November 15 stating that the bus stand has been shifted to Aandamukkam. On November 17 the Corporation demolished the two bus shelters at Clock Tower bus stand.
The 150-odd buses operating in the city limit is finding it difficult to enter the Aandamukkam stand owing to the narrow roads leading to the stand, Babu said. Babu said that though the Payikkada and Hanuman Kovil Roads had been declared as one-way, vehicles often ply in both directions. Besides,vehicles are parked on the road sides obstructing the movement of heavy vehicles.
Babu pointed out that even the buses conducting moffusil services had little parking space at the Aandamukkam stand. The Corporation’s plan to construct two bus shelters here will make it difficult for the buses to enter the stand.
The KSRTC buses are also parked on the Hanuman Kovil Road. Babu asked the corporation authorities and Road Transport Authority (RTA) to take urgent steps to keep the Payikkada-Hanuman Kovil Roads as one way.
He said that under the Kerala Motor Vehicles Act section 344, it was the RTA that had the powers to shift bus stands, as it was the statutory body to take a decision in such matters.
But in this case, the Kollam Corporation had unilaterally taken a decision, Babu said. The proposed underpass at Chinnakkada would not solve the traffic bottleneck there, since only a few vehicles pass through the beach road, he said.