The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation authorities have maintained that city services had not been affected though they had launched inter-district services using low-floor Volvo AC buses allotted for city transport under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).
The KSRTC which operates the services is using six buses for long-distance services from Kochi.
“There has been no change to the 42 buses running 39 schedules in the city. Inter-district services are operated using six buses in eight schedules. Therefore it never affects the existing city services,” said P X Antony KSRTC General Control Inspector at KSRTC Ernakulam Depot. He said the inter-district services yield an average collection in the initial days. “Collection on initial days may not be profitable compared to the expense of `40/km. This figure was estimated three years ago when the city services began. Maintenance charges, diesel price and other expenses have gone up. But the passengers have welcomed the new services,” Antony said.
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
Though the KSRTC started the inter-district services, the final schedule is yet to be prepared. As per the tentative schedule, there will be three services each to Thiruvananthapuram and Nilambur which starts at 5:30 am, 11:30 am and 5:30 pm.
Services to Kozhikode start at 5:30 am, 11:30 am and 6 pm Three services are scheduled to Kottayam at 6:30 am, 10:40 am and 3:20 pm while there will be two services to Pala scheduled at 6:15 am and 5:10 pm. Services to Thodupuzha are scheduled at 7:25 am and 5.25 pm.
Fares are `336 to Thiruvananthapuram, `314 to Kozhikode, `288 to Nilambur, `120 to Kottayam, `112 to Pala and `94 to Thodupuzha.