CHENNAI: Ahead of an extended weekend, Central and Egmore Railway Stations as well as the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus (CMBT) at Koyambedu witnessed a mad rush on Wednesday night.
Thousands of people have thronged these places to travel home for spending the vacation even as there was non-availability of seats in most of the trains and buses. This has forced many travellers to shell out extra money to secure a seat in private buses at Koyambedu.
According to T Shinny Renitha from Nagercoil, the wait list position on Kanyakumari Superfast Express was above 180 when she tried to book ticket nearly two months ago.
“I did not book the ticket as I was doubtful of getting it confirmed later. Now, I am forced to buy an unreserved ticket two days ago by reaching the station over three hours in advance to wait in the serpentine queue,” Renitha said.
IT professional Anand, travelling to Tirunelveli on the same train, said “There was no clarity on the days my company would declare holiday making it difficult to plan. As such, I have no other option but to travel in unreserved compartment as buses are also full, and the few seats that are available are available only at a hefty amount,” he said.
Another IT employee, M Moovendan, said he had to book a ticket to Salem in a non-ac private bus shelling out `1,000 which on normal days was `600. Raja, proceeding to his native to Coimbatore by Cheran Express, was yet to get a ticket either on train or bus.
The crowd was huge at the ticket counter ahead of the scheduled departure of Silambu Express, from Egmore to Manamadurai, that left at 8.30 pm.