People scramble for seats as flights, trains are full

Pvt Bus Operators Make A Killing; Charge Exorbitant Rates
V Ayyappan TNN

Dec 25, 2008

Chennai: P Krishna had to shell out Rs 1,500 to travel to Madurai with his wife in an air-conditioned bus against the normal fare of Rs 1,000. But he wasn’t complaining —getting home for Christmas would have been impossible otherwise as flights and trains have been booked full. Similar was the plight of thousands of travellers who could not plan itineraries well ahead of the holidays. Many like P Santosh Kumar headed to the private bus stand at Koyembedu to catch a bus to Thiruvananthapuram, his hometown, only to find that all private buses to Thiruvananthapuram had left by then. “We received advance bookings and scheduled our buses early. No seats are available till January 29,” said a staff of KPN Travels. Though the fares were not as exorbitant as they used to be in the previous years, the staff of several private bus operators were charging Rs 100 to Rs 300 more for seats to popular destinations like Madurai, Coimbatore, Tiruchi, Tirunelveli and Nagercoil. Ask for a ticket to Tiruchi, and a bus employee says: “You are lucky that an extra bus has been brought now. We can offer you a seat to Tiruchi for Rs 600.” Several operators introduced additional destinations depending on demand. “If we find there are more people wanting to travel to Madurai, we bring an extra bus to accommodate them,” said a bus operator. “As many as 50 extra buses have been brought to meet the additional rush on Wednesday,” said Omni Bus Operators’ Association officebearer Afsal. As many as 200 buses are operated from the Koyembedu bus terminal everyday. “We are forced to charge more money because additional buses are brought from other towns. These buses run almost empty to Chennai. We need to make up for the loss,” said an operator.