The construction work at the Central Bus Terminal in Thampanoor seems to have no end. Even a year and a half after the inauguration of the terminal, work at the parking area is still going on. Short-distance buses still operate from outside the bus station causing traffic snarls in front of the railway station and on the road to Aristo Junction.
Sources in KSRTC said they currently operate more than 500 bus services, to short distance routes, from outside the terminal. About 180 bus services of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation and 74 of the State Express Transport Corporation are operating right in the front of the terminal.
S Padmaja, a resident of Vithura, complained about the lack of proper facilities at the temporary stop near the railway quarters where buses to the Nedumangad-Vithura route pick up passengers. She said the arrangement causes difficulty to both passengers and the pedestrians. According to Mahesh N, working with a private firm in Thampanoor, pedestrians have to walk on the middle on the road as the pavement is blocked most of the time by the crowd at the bus stop.
About 715 bus services are operated every day from the terminal situated in an area of around 3 acres, which include a parking area and a bus bay. “Private vehicles occupy the space allotted for the buses and as a result we are compelled to park the buses in two lines, which sometimes create traffic block,” said Shaji Kumar, a KSRTC driver.
Due to the on-going construction works, only 15 buses are being parked in the bus bays that have been designed for hosting 25 buses at a time. The long distance buses with terminal gap (time given before the commencement of each bus service) of more than an hour are now sent to KSRTC stand at Vikas Bhavan due to lack of parking space at Thampanoor terminal.
While the passengers and staff complain about lack of facilities at the bus stand and parking space, the KSRTC officials too complain about the lack of space in the bus bay. “The terminal premises could not accommodate all buses as the construction work is not yet complete,” said district transport officer A Chandrasekharan Nair.
“The KSRTC is considering minimizing the time gap for buses, which is currently 10 to 15 minutes, resizing the divider between bus bays by reducing their width and creating another platform on the slabs placed above Amayizhanchan canal where there will be more bus bays to tackle the issue,” added Nair.
News: Times of India
