With long-distance buses from Chennai being suspended on Saturday evening, over 1,500 people were stranded overnight at the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus at Koyambedu. It was not until the services resumed on Sunday that they were able to leave the terminus.
Large crowd The State Express Transport Corporation and the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation stopped their services after 3 p.m. on Saturday and resumed operation on Sunday morning. “In the morning, we had a large crowd waiting overnight at the Koyambedu bus terminus and other bus terminals across the State, and our buses were running to capacity,” an official of the Transport Department said.
By Sunday evening, almost all services resumed. The MTC, which was running a few buses till 8 p.m., also suspended night services and resumed the services after 5.30 a.m. “Till about 7 a.m., the buses were running full, and after that there were only a very few passengers,” an MTC official said.
The Karnataka State Transport Corporation, which had suspended its services since Saturday morning, started running buses by 3 p.m. Sunday.
“We were unsure of how the situation would be and so it was decided not to operate services to and from Tamil Nadu; but by 3 p.m. Sunday, we got clearance from the head office, and our services are normal. There were many cancellations even on Sunday,” an official said.
Private bus operators were asked by the police to stop services by Saturday evening. The services resumed on Sunday afternoon. “By Saturday evening, we received several cancellations. There were reports of buses being attacked, so omnibus operators decided to suspend services till Sunday. Only after the State corporations started running did we decide to operate our fleets,” said A. Afzal, president of the Tamilnadu Omni Bus Owners Association.
