Ending a long wait of six years, short-distance buses of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) have started operating from the utility’s modern bus terminal at Thampanoor.
The shifting of the bus operations from the make-shift bus stands on the busy Overbridge-Thampanoor-Aristo junction corridor to the terminal has come as a respite to commuters and to the road users, especially the motorists.
The commuters now do not have to run to board the buses that operated from near the KTDC’s Hotel Chaithram and from the Thampanoor Police station. Things were tough for them since 2009 when the KSRTC decided to demolish the old station building.
Bus services
The KSRTC buses to Balaramapuram, Neyattinkara and beyond, Poovar, Kattakada, Vithura, Nedumangad, Vithura and Aryanad have been shifted to the terminal premises from Friday. The buses will be operating from the new bus bays.
Buses proceeding to Attingal will continue to operate from the RMS side for some more time, it is learnt. The stage carriers of the Tamil Nadu Road Transport Corporation to Kanyakumari and other districts will also continue to operate from the entrance of the new terminal.
The delay in shifting the short distance bus operations from the road side even after the commissioning of the Rs.65-crore 12-storey terminal complex last year had come in for flak.
The terminal complex has been envisaged to transform the prevailing concept of a bus station. The attempts of the Kerala Transport Development Finance Corporation to lease out the commercial space and the parking space in the terminal complex have not succeeded.
The citizens and the passengers will have to wait for some more time to see the commercial hub in full swing.
The busy carriageway that houses the central railway station will be relieved of traffic snarls only if the stage carriers shift all operations to the new terminal premises.
A skywalk proposed from the bus terminal side to the Power House road linking the central station has also failed to take-off. The road in front of the terminal has been developed under the City Road Improvement Project.
Source: The Hindu