Deepavali special bus services to begin from tomorrow

The State-run transport corporations will operate nearly 30,000 special buses to help people travel across the districts to celebrate Deepavali.

Earlier last week, the Transport officials had a review meeting with the Transport Minister MR Vijayabhaskar and announced that around 9,510 buses, including special buses, would be operated from the city to various parts of the State from November 11 to 13 from five bus termini in the city.

“We will operate 3,510 buses from the city, including 2,000 daily services. From other parts of the State, we will operate 5,247 buses for the three days,” the Transport official said.

Further, the officials said, every year around 6 lakh commuters travel during Deepavali season. But considering the current pandemic situation and that many have already stayed back in their native during the lockdown, only 5 lakh people are expected to travel this year.

Also, the special buses will be operated only in inter-district level and no buses will be permitted to travel to other states except Pondicherry.

Meanwhile, the Transport Minister had also said that the MTC would operate special link buses from Dr MGR bus terminus in Koyambedu to the four bus termini from where the special buses would be operated. The special buses would be operated according to segregated routes from the four termini, including Madhavaram (bound for Uthukottai via Red Hills, Ponneri and Gummidipoondi), KK Nagar (Puducherry via ECR), Tambaram MEPZ (Tindivanam, Vikravandi, Panruti and Kumbakonam), Poonamallee (Kancheepuram, Vellore, Arani, Arcot, Tirupattur and Dharmapuri), and Koyambedu (Nagapattinam, Velankanni, Tiruchy, Madurai, Tirunelveli, Salem and Coimbatore). Special buses would also be operated from the bus terminus located near Tambaram railway station.

While the booking counters were open since last month, nearly 70,000 bookings have been done so far.

The passengers can also use the website www.tnstc.in to book their travel. Also, a round-the-clock control room for helping passengers in Koyambedu and mobile numbers for complaint, 9445014450 and 9445014436, have been set up.