Chennai: After more than two years, Tamilnadu is gearing up for a festival weekend sans much Covid-19 restrictions. With back to back holidays thanks to Tamil New Year tomorrow, Good Friday on 15 April, Saturday and Sunday (Easter), many in Chennai are planning to visit their native places and tourist spots.
Taking note of this, the State Transport department has decided to operate 1,200 special buses today and tomorrow from Chennai to various parts of the State.
‘The additional buses will be operated to Tiruchi, Coimbatore, Salem, Nagapattinam, Velankanni, Thanjavur, Ariyalur, Madurai, Nagercoil, Dindigul, Erode, Tirupur and Hosur among other places,’ said a Transport department release. It added additional buses will be operated in the return routes on 17 April to enable people come back to the city.
Also, though Covid figures have come down in the State, sources said protocols will be followed at all tourist places to prevent any fresh outbreak of the pandemic. In addition, to prevent crimes, police personnel will be deployed in adequate numbers at places of attraction.
The State Transport Department has segregated the bus routes originating from the city to various districts in the State and would operate regular and special buses, an official said.
Similarly the Transport Department, to help people get back to Chennai and other places after holidays, the department has made arrangements for operating special buses, he added.
The decision to run the special buses was taken at a meeting chaired by State Transport Minister S S Sivasankar on Tuesday. It is common for the Transport department to operate special buses during festival weekends.
During last Deepavali, the department operated 16,540 buses from 1 to 3 November, 2021, From Chennai, a total of 6,300 regular buses as well as 3,506 special buses plied to other parts of Tamilnadu. Whereas, 6,734 special buses in total ran between various destinations within the state.
Similarly, for people to return to Chennai as well as other places, the State Transport department had made arrangements to operate 17,719 buses from 5 to 8 November, 2021.