THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation is being forced to pull out a sizeable number of long-distance, inter-state schedules with every passing day as the vehicles are often becoming the target of troublemakers across the border. Amid the Mullaperiyar row, nearly 100 buses out of the 427 KSRTC inter-state schedules, especially those operating in the Coimbatore-Salem, Cumbum-Theni and Thenkasi-Tirunelveli sectors, have been withdrawn in the past three days.
“Officials of the Transport Department are in touch with their Tamil Nadu counterparts. We cannot continue suffering further damage as there are reports of pelting of stones on vehicles in many areas,” Transport and Devaswom Minister V S Sivakumar told Express. Bangalore-bound buses from KSRTC depots in south and central Kerala are being diverted through the Kozhikode-Wayanad-Mysore route avoiding the Coimbatore-Salem belt.
“There are hardly any reports of attack on vehicles on the Pazhani-Pollachi route. The Nagercoil sector is the only trouble-free path now,” K M Irshad, Executive Director (Operations), KSRTC, told Express. “Interestingly, operations of Tamil Nadu state government-owned buses in Kerala have not been hit,” Irshad said.
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