Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Sep 18: Restrictions imposed due to the second wave of coronavirus infection have been relaxed to a large extent. Meetings and functions are now being held, and weekend curfews have been lifted. Still, the private bus owners are not in a position to operate all the bus services. Even the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation buses have not resumed full operations.

Sources claim that 275 out of 325 private city buses and 20 out of 32 National Urban Renewal Mission buses are now moving around. In routes where the presence of buses were scarce, the people are facing more difficulties on a daily basis. The owners of buses who used to operate several buses on a single route, are not running all of them. But owners of a few buses are under compulsion to operate buses even though they are not earning any profit. Other than the grace period for paying taxes, the transport sector has not received the support it was hoping from the government. This grievance exists among the bus owners.

Functions, rallies etc have not returned to full scale, and schools and colleges are not running as in the past. Because of the weekend curfew that was in force till last week, the people have not been moving around normally. Rising cost of diesel has come as a shock for the bus operators, who say that because of these issues, they are unable to run the buses properly. "We are hopeful that things will improve shortly," Immediate past district president of Bus Owners Association, Dilraj Alva, says. On certain routes, almost 50 percent bus services have been withdrawn while on Mangaluru-Deralakatte-Tarigudde-Madaka route, the only bus that was operating has stopped.

Dakshina Kannada district City bus Owners Association president, Jayasheela Adyantaya Adkar, says that because of high cost of diesel, empty buses caused by confusion, lack of functions , schools not reopened etc, the bus industry is facing issues and it may take time before the things return to normalcy.