Date:24/03/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/24/stories/2008032459461100.htm

Tamil Nadu

More bus services for Karapattu sought

Staff Reporter

“Roads are in bad shape, which slow down bus journey”
“Many private bus operators have suspended service to interior villages”

PUDUPALAYAM: Residents of Karapattu in Pudupalayam block of Tiruvannamalai district suffer without adequate bus service.

The residents want the Transport Department to increase the frequency of bus service to the village.

They claimed that during rush hour, school students and office-goers were forced to travel on the top of the bus owing to overcrowding. The bus service to the village was also erratic.

Karapattu was about 30 km from Chengam and the normal running time of the bus, which started from Chengam, was one hour. But the local town bus took at least one-and-a-half-hour to reach Karapattu, owing to the bad roads.

The State Highways had taken up road widening works from Chengam to Polur via Pudupalayam. The road works from Chengam to Pudupalayam were getting delayed posing hardship to the motorists and the commuters. The road was full of potholes, which slowed down the bus journey. Hence the local town buses could not stick to the timings.

The residents also said that taking pregnant women by road to the Government Hospital at Chengam for check-up was risky. The Primary Health Centre at Pudupalayam was not well equipped to handle complicated pregnancy cases.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, during its previous rule from 1996-2001, had laid the interior roads and introduced bus services to several hamlets. But, many of the private bus operators had suspended the service to some interior villages owing to the bad roads, the villagers claimed.

One of the residents said that the State Highways Department expedited the road works soon after a protest was staged by a political party.

But, the situation then changed again, and the pace slowed down.

Pudupalayam panchayat union chairman C. Sundarapandian, during an informal talk with this reporter, said that he had requested Food Minister E.V. Velu, who was elected from the nearby Thandarambattu constituency, to intervene in the issue. Once the road works were complete, there would not be any problem for the residents of the villages in the Pudupalayam block, he said.

The residents also sought adequate bus service from Karapattu to Tiruvannamalai via Kanchi and more services to Karapattu and from here to other areas.