MSRTC resumes bus service to a lukewarm response from passengers
21 Aug 2020 09:02:18
Passengers maintaining social distancing in an ST Bus at Ganeshpeth Bus Stand. (Pic by Satish Raut)
Special Correspondent :
Passengers suffer hardships as the buses were not in operation for the past few months
Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), on Thursday, resumed bus services in Vidarbha after a long gap of five months owing to COVID-19 crisis. However, on the first day of resuming of services, passengers suffered a lot of hardships as the buses were not in operation for a long time. Around 60 buses made trips from Ganeshpeth ST Bus Station till evening, carrying 10/12 passengers in each bus. MSRTC will allow only 22 passengers, which is 50 per cent of the capacity, in a bus with one person on a seat and adjoining seat remaining vacant.
Buses left from this bus station after one hour or one-and-a-half hours to Amravati, Bhandara, Gondia, Wardha, Chandrapur, Yavatmal and other places in Vidarbha. However, the flow of passengers was low and hence time-table could not be maintained strictly. The bus drivers/conductors waited for passengers till the number went above ten. There were even four/five passengers waiting for the bus going to Chandrapur or other places. The buses could take passengers from other bus stands/stations en route, said Nilesh Belsare, Divisional Controller, MSRTC, Nagpur. Belsare told ‘The Hitavada’ that MSRTC had not started long-distance buses from Nagpur to Pune, Nasik, Aurangabad or Buldana.
However, these buses will also be operated once the corporation gets response from the people. He expected that the number of passengers would increase soon in view of festival season. If a group of around 20 passengers approaches MSRTC, the buses can be operated, he added. It may happen that a bus leaving Buldana does not reach Nagpur and the journey is terminated at Amravati, depending on the number of passengers on-board. Nagpur passengers in that bus can catch any other bus from Amravati. Lukewarm response of passengers is due to fear among the people about COVID-19.
The schools are also closed. Hence, there is no response from the teachers and students. Belsare said that private buses were out of operation totally and hence the passengers could turn to MSRTC buses for travel. The situation will improve in near future, he hoped.
Passengers sit in buses without sanitisation, temperature check Though it resumed the bus services on Thursday from Nagpur after a long gap, MSRTC had not made any arrangements for sanitiser and temperature-checking at Ganeshpeth ST Bus Station for the passengers wanting to board the buses. On the condition of anonymity, a conductor wondered how would he know if a person boarding a bus from any place on the given route was a patient or carrier of COVID-19, since there was no arrangement for checking temperature of passengers. When the number of COVID-19 patients is increasing now-a-days, conductor has to deal with the passengers in the bus. In such a situation, one cannot rule out the possibility of contracting infection, he added with concern.