TIRUNELVELI: Several TNSTC buses at KTC Nagar depot have to keep their engines running throughout the day, as a single stop is enough to exhaust the battery and the vehicle won’t move one inch further. Drivers are instructed to go on full steam until the bus is parked at the depot at night.
The morning protocol is even more taxing— an army is required to jump-start the vehicles every day— with a lengthy cable used to connect the drained batteries to the charged battery of another bus, allege TNSTC bus drivers and conductors.
“A few buses in our depot rely on the batteries of other buses to jump start the engine most mornings. A lengthy cable is used to connect the drained battery to the charged one of another bus parked nearby. Once connected, we manage to start our bus. We are then instructed not to stop the bus until it is parked back at the depot at night,” a driver said.
On Monday morning, one such bus broke down on the busy city road between Palayamkottai and Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital. The crew of two TNSTC buses, along with some passengers, were left with no choice but to alight the bus and push the vehicle to the roadside after struggling for about 15 minutes to clear the traffic.
Speaking to TNIE, some TNSTC bus crew members working on contract basis said that several city buses frequently break down on the road.
“However, only a few incidents that occur on busy roads come to light. Recently, another TNSTC bus broke down at the busy Tirunelveli Junction Bus Stand. The bus crew, passengers, and traffic police personnel managed to push it to the roadside. The main reason for these breakdowns is the engine trouble caused by battery issues,” they said.
Meanwhile, a TNSTC official said that the depot had been supplied with sufficient batteries. “No such issues are being faced nowadays,” he said.
R Radhakrishnan, general secretary of the TNSTC Workers’ Federation, said, “I have heard that some depots face a shortage of decent quality batteries. The issue does not occur with experienced drivers. But, the drivers recruited nowadays on a contract basis are inexperienced due to which the buses break down on the road. However, the main blame lies on issues of the battery.”