VIJAYAWADA: Ahead of Dasara, the usual hustle and bustle of passengers was missing at Pandit Nehru Bus Station (PNBS) in the city on Friday. There was not much rush of people going and coming to their hometowns for the festival this time due to the Covid-19 pandemic. No Covid-19 guidelines seemed to have been followed strictly either by RTC employees or the travelling public. Some people were seen moving even without wearing a face mask on the bus station premises. The social distancing norm seemed to have been ignored by the travelling public.
“Normally, we can see thousands of people getting down and boarding the RTC buses throughout the day during the festive season, especially during Dasara. Some days used to be so busy that we would have to skip our lunch also. But this year, the PNBS is not even filled with 20 per cent of what it was in previous years. In my 17 years of career, I have never seen the PNBS this empty during the festival time,” said P Shyamsundar, a ticket collector.
“We have not even started plying the buses kept as extra for Dasara yet as the demand for regular buses is only not there. Generally, we bring extra buses after 80 per cent of the regular buses get filled or booked. As RTC buses to Hyderabad have not started yet, not even 50 per cent of tickets for regular buses have been booked this season,” said G Satyanarayana, deputy chief traffic manager of RTC.
Majority of travellers are heading to Visakhapatnam and East and West Godavari districts from Vijayawada. Meanwhile, private operators are encashing the demand for bus services to Hyderabad by charging exorbitant fare.