Though launched with much fanfare in August 2012, the Elamakkara-Aluva Thiru-Kochi bus service by the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) was called off even before the initial euphoria died down.
Surprisingly, Hibi Eden MLA, who claims to have taken the initiative to launch the service, couldn’t confirm whether the service is still operational or not. The KSRTC officials too failed to confirm whether the KSRTC service still runs on the route.
Hibi Eden said he is not aware of anything with regard to the service. “I really do not know about this. I will inquire into the matter. Perhaps, ATO can throw more light in this regard,” he said. However, ATO C K Radhakrishnan could not confirm which service was withdrawn. “As far as my knowledge goes, the service is still operational. The bus was taken into custody for the verification of fitness. But, I think the service is still there,” he said.
This is not the first time that the residents of Elamakkara were promised a bus and then repealed, much to their dismay.
M Anil Kumar, the councillor at North Division of Elamakkara, refuted the claim by the MLA and ATO and confirmed that the Thirukochi service had stopped operations just two months after it has taken off.
“The only thing that happened just after the launch of the service was the popping up of flux boards praising the MLA. Unfortunately, the bus service was repealed soon. Earlier, there were two bus services - a KSRTC and a private service- in the Elamakkara-Aluva region. But the latter was cut down for unknown reasons, the former was withdrawn owing to political pressures,” he said.
Anil Kumar said that the time schedule of the KSRTC service was faulty and they urged to rectify it.
He added that despite straitening out the issue, the KSRTC withdrew the service.
He said that after the protest meet, the authorities had promised to launch it again.