Commuters in dire straits

KOCHI: It looks like passengers are facing never-ending problems at the Vyttila mobility hub. For the past one week, KSRTC and private bus crew members have been at each others throats with respect to bay allocation causing more confusion and chaos to the public.The topic of contention, the KSRTC drivers allege, is that private buses are parking at the bay allotted to them.“We don’t understand why the private buses are using our bay space. It is unfair since the rest of the bays have been allotted to them. This is causing more trouble to all,” said Sunil Kumar, station master at the mobility hub.The KSRTC has been allotted six bays of the total 13 bays in the hub. The mobility hub which started operating long-distance buses since last week is presently housing all long-distance KSRTC and private buses. All the feeder buses in the city have stops at the hub. So the KSRTC was allotted bays, a decision taken as soon as the agitation between the two parties on bays came up. S Sunil, KSRTC union member, said, “Now that we have been given  six bays, we have set up boards indicating the destination areas. With the cooperation of the private bus crew, we can easily maintain discipline in the hub. But they are not interested.”But Private Bus Operators Organisation representative J Raju said that the KSRTC has no right to have the first six bays, since only 300 KSRTC buses are using the hub. “Providing them almost half of the total number of bays is ridiculous,” he said.Moreover, they are not paying the toll.    The majority of the buses entering the hub are private buses and it is only logical to give the private buses a sharing space with the KSRTC buses, he said. “Most of the people use our services rather than the KSRTC. If we are allotted slots at the end of the bay, do you expect passengers to run half a kilometre to catch the bus? Also, we have time constraints to keep unlike the KSRTC buses which can stop at the bay for at least 15 minutes, he said. A meeting with the Collector and RTO will be called and decisions taken, the mobility hub authorities said.