There has been good response in Ernakulam district to the Transport department inviting suggestions from members of the public to operate buses in hitherto unconnected or underutilised routes.
Sources said the Motor Vehicles department (MVD) had received suggestions/demands from various associations and members of the public to operate KSRTC or private buses on 25 such routes, mainly in Kochi city and its immediate suburbs. “Most of them are residential and commercial areas located on byroads that take off from arterial roads. Their main demand is for feeder bus services to ferry commuters from such localities to metro stations and to prominent commercial hubs in the city. Their demand is reasonable but for the fact that many byroads have potential traffic bottlenecks due to encroachments, haphazard parking, and electric posts that ought to be relocated,” they added.
As for the city entry of private buses from Goshree isles, the recent notification that fixed a 25-km cap on the total route length must be amended and more distance permitted, the sources said. Suggestions can be mailed to kl07.mvd@kerala.gov.in.
Welcoming the proposal of the Transport department, wherein local bodies too could suggest new bus routes, Mayor M. Anilkumar said a decision on subsidising the operation of buses that could be procured under a scheme of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) would go a long way in introducing bus services on new routes. “The situation is such that buses procured using Central funds are vested with the KSRTC, which takes little effort to effectively maintain and operate them,” he added.
In a letter to Ernakulam Regional Transport Officer P.G. Jayamohan, the district committee member of Ernakulam District Residents Association Apex Council (EDRAAC) and a member of Lal Salam Road Residents Association demanded deployment of adequate number of buses on the Vyttila-Menaka-Vyttila circular route through Subhash Bose Road that was developed by the Kochi Corporation and does not have public transport connectivity. This will in turn provide connectivity to Kaloor-Kadavanthra Road and through there to the city hub for commuters from residential areas on either side of the road. It would be ideal to operate mini buses at frequent intervals through the corridor, while steps must be taken to identify bus stops, he added.
Decrying slack public transport connectivity to innumerable old and newly developed arterial roads, the EDRAAC president P. Rangadasa Prabhu decried that commuters from Goshree islands and other suburbs had to board multiple buses to reach their destinations in the city and localities like Kakkanad, Thripunithura, and Chottanikkara. “This is because most buses operate through Menaka and other routes that were fixed over 50 years ago. The net result is that most other places do not have public transport bus link. Buses must be issued permits to operate through Panampilly Nagar, Stadium Link Road, and Thammanam-Pullepady Road that is awaiting widening,” he said.
EDRAAC had submitted memoranda in this regard to the Regional Transport Authority headed by the District Collector and to the Navakerala Sadas.
