Kochi: The past few days saw techies of various software companies at Infopark joining hands to raise an issue of a different kind. What irked them was the “re-routing” of KURTC AC low-floor services, originally scheduled to IT park from destinations like Alappuzha, to other “profitable routes”, resulting in travelling woes.
The techies reacted by collecting a mass petition from those software employees depending on public transport and submitted it to the authorities of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC).
“For instance the AC Volvo bus JN 361 which is scheduled to run between Alappuzha and Infopark: The service is not in place for the last one week which has affected over 40 Infopark employees like me. The service started in April 2015 and was a big hit collection-wise as most of the commuters were Infopark staff travelling on a daily basis,” said Vishnu Prasad Kammath, a techie based in Cherthala.
“When contacted, we were told by the Alappuzha KSRTC authorities that the bus having Wi-Fi facility was deployed in the profitable Alapuzha-Thiruvananthapuram route where the collection touches the Rs 30, 000 mark. Instead an ordinary service replaced the earlier limited stop bus which has put the women passengers in great difficulty. The bus takes double the running time and this results in our reaching home late in the evening,” said Parvathy Dhanesh, another software employee.
When contacted, KSRTC authorities denied re-routing of the buses with facilities like Wi-Fi. “A number of AC low-floor buses are docked to facilitate CF test and oil change among others. The one on the Alappuzha-Infopark route will be restored by next week,” said G. Balamurali, District Transport Officer.
Soon after the commencement of the service two years back, the regular commuters of the Alappuzha-Infopark AC low-floor bus, which boasts a Wi-Fi facility set up by the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd, formed a Whats App group for purposes like bus tracking.
