Chennai: The city is wearing a deserted look, so to speak, as more than 10 lakh people have left for their hometowns and tourism destinations, thanks to the four-day Deepavali holiday.
As a result, there were no traffic jams today on roads notorious for snarls and many arterial streches were near empty with very less number of vehicles.
Sources reveal that over eight lakh opted for the State-run buses. People also used other modes- private buses, trains and own vehicles.
According to information from transport officials, over 1,40,000 passengers had reserved bus tickets until 4 November while about 84,000 tickets were reserved for buses that ply on 5 November.
On 2 November, about 14,000 reserved tickets where booked. From Chennai alone, nearly 51,962 booked their bus tickets to travel to their destinations, added the officials. They also said that the unreserved tickets numbered to about 1,48,000.
“We have been operating over 22,000 buses across the State,” said another senior official. “The rush for Deepavali is surely high.” “For this festival, the buses have been arranged to cater over six lakh passengers.”
MTC and Chennai police have joined hands together to take measures to ease the traffic.
They have even set up a control room at the Koyambedu bus terminus. Measures have also been taken to monitor private bus operators. Sources say vehicles about four operators were seized for transporting passengers without a legal permit.
TAMBARAM ON TOP
Reports show that about 10,610 passengers travelled through nearly 200 buses from Tambaram bus stand. “Every year for Deepavali, several thousand use the buses to travel from Tambaram to reach their native home towns,” says Raj Sekar, a passenger. “I myself use it as it is convenient but buses are less in number. Though the tickets are every reasonable when compared to private buses, government buses are always in low number.”
“Also the tickets we sell are very less when compared to private bus transport operators,” said an official.