Vijayawada bus station packed with return passengers
VIJAYAWADA: The Pandit Nehru Bus Stand (PNBS) in the city is jam-packed with passengers who are heading back to their respective places after the festival season. The passenger rush, which began last weekend, peaked during the Dasara festival. With Bakrid falling on Monday, the rush is all set to continue for two more days.
While private bus operators are fleecing the passengers, the APSRTC has come up with its own measures to cope up with the sudden surge in passenger rush.
The APSRTC has run more than 400 special services to places like Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore from September 26 to October 3. But, with the demand for bus services still continuing, APSRTC is operating the special bus services.
'With Sunday coming after Dasara and Monday also being a holiday, the passenger rush has not come come down. Therefore, we are continuing the special services which were originally planned only till October 3,' said APSRTC Vijayawada regional manager G Sudesh Kumar.
The APSRTC is running 120 special buses Sunday. While these buses are run to all major cities, more than 60 per cent of them are Hyderabad-bound.
'Hyderabad is the most preferred destination. Besides, there is a huge demand for reservation to places like Visakhapatnam, Chennai, Rajahmundry and Tirupati as well,' added G Sudesh Kumar.
Though APSRTC has increased the fares during the festival season, to make up for the losses during the lean season, the passengers are preferring APSRTC buses in the lean season.
'The APSRTC ticket rates have been increased but they are very reasonable. Private bus operators are virtually robbing the people. APSRTC buses are not so comfortable when compared to their private counterparts but it is very safe to travel by them,' said S Sumavanth, a techie who booked a ticket to travel to Bangalore from Vijayawada.
While there is a huge rush during the festival season and the APSRTC has introduced new services to clear extra rush of passengers, these services are still not sufficient and the passengers want more services to be introduced.
News Posted: 6 October, 2014
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