CHENNAI: State Express Transport Corporation (SETC) has decided to hire 400 temporary drivers-cum-conductors to manage its staff shortage. The temporary workers would be hired via the Institute of Road Transport (IRT), the training arm of transport corporations.
Official sources said it would be nearly impossible to operate special buses for Deepavali as the staff strength had declined drastically in all depots owing to retirement. The SETC, which operated over 1,000 buses daily before Covid-19, currently functioned at 60-70% of the capacity. The MTC and Madurai, Salem, Kumbakonam, Coimbatore, Villupuram, and Tirunelveli divisions of TN State Transport Corporations, too, frequently cut back on services.
The transport corporations requested permission to hire temporary staff after the State government insisted that all ordinary buses of the pre-Covid period should be put back in service. “The State government should expedite filling vacancies in the transport department. Owing to shortage of staff, the corporations are unable to introduce buses on new routes,” said a depot manager of TNSTC Villupuram.