Chennai, June 1 (IANS): After over two months of Covid-19 lockdown, life in Tamil Nadu is slowly limping back to normalcy with state transport buses starting to ply in most of the districts.

The state government had also relaxed some of the lockdown restrictions on Sunday.

Fifty per cent bus services - barring Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Chengalpattu districts- were resumed in the state after the vehicles were sanitised.

Only mask wearing persons were allowed to board the buses.

The government had stipulated that the buses will be operated with 60 per cent seating capacity.

In some districts, the drivers performed `puja' before starting their vehicles.

The passenger patronage in some routes were good but poor in some other routes.

Talking to reporters here, Transport Minister M.R. Vijayabhaskar said the facility of fare payment by Paytm on pilot basis has been introduced in buses.

Similarly, the Indian Railways also started operating trains in select routes.

The inter-city express trains between Coimbatore-Katpadi, and Madurai-Villupuram were operated.

In the capital city, with most of the restrictions continuing owing to high coronavirus infection levels there was not much of a change except that the number of vehicles on the roads went up.

Though IT companies were allowed to function in the city with a maximum of 40 employees, the players are continuing with their work from home policy.

Many standalone shops were open but there were not much customers.

After more than two months, barber shops and beauty salons opened their doors for customers.

A barber shop owner said it may take couple of days for customers to come to the shop. On the other hand in some areas, barber shops got good business.