Kochi: There is good news for people travelling to Tamil Nadu. The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) is gearing up to operate bus services to Velankanni and Ramesh-waram among other new destinations in the neighbouring state. The discussion about inter-state reciprocal transport agreement with Tamil Nadu is close to be clinched and only ministerial-level talks are pending, a senior official said.
“We have given a direction to main centres like Ernakulam asking the depot in-charge to identify profitable routes from there to destinations in the neighbouring state for running new services. The same will be complied and new services will be started based on demand and bus availability once the pact is clinched,” he said. The new services planned also include destinations such as Hassan in Karnataka as an agreement for transit passage of a total of 4,420 km through the neighbouring state has also been finalised.
“A direction has been received to give a list of new destinations to which buses can be operated from here. The places suggested from here include Velankanni, Rameshwaram, Salem (no direct buses from Ernakulam currently) and Hassan among others,” said an official at the Ernakulam depot. The KSRTC had in 2015 announced its plans to operate air-conditioned multi-axle buses to Panaji, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Tirupati and Puttaparthi from Kozhikode and Ernakulam stations. However, an agreement with Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Goa and Maharashtra are yet to be worked out.
