Unnikrishnan S By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: When Dr Saritha reached the Central bus stand at Thampanoor on Monday morning to reach her destination 93 km away, she did not know that KSRTC’s experiment with fast passenger service would leave her almost three hours late for work. She works as a homeopathy doctor in a tribal dispensary in Mullumala, a forest location 26 kilometres from Punalur. Cancellation of regular Thiruvananthapuram-Punalur fast passenger bus at 6.30 am meant she had to stretch her three-and-a-half hour journey to over six hours. “Today I could not catch a connection bus from Punalur as there were no sufficient buses from Thiruvananthapuram,” she said. Instead of reaching the dispensary at 10 am, she reached at 12.45 pm. The chain service experiment that began on Sunday has not gone down well with passengers as lack of adequate bus services has caused hardships to hundreds of commuters like Dr Saritha. As part of streamlining the services, KSRTC has withdrawn 180 buses from regular routes. Though the KSRTC management said there would be a fast passenger service at five-minute intervals during office hours, many had to wait for over 45 minutes. The frequency was not maintained on National Highway and MC Road as promised. At Venjaramoodu depot, passengers struggled to get inside buses during peak hours. Meanwhile, the regular passengers of Nedumangad- Pathanamthitta fast passenger which was also cancelled following the Monday reforms were also upset with the move. They had successfully fought for reinstating the bus service when it was cancelled in February. “I took a superfast to reach Ayoor. It was a tedious journey, especially the Anchal-Punalur stretch which is under repair,” said Rajeesh Vincent, a Sanskrit teacher at Kalayanad in Punalur. He is the administrator of a WhatsApp group called ‘KSRTC Vithura@Pathanamthitta’. The group members petitioned the KSRTC which gave them assurance that Nedumangad-Pathanamthitta fast passenger service will be reinstated from Tuesday.Rajeesh had even bought sweets to celebrate the occasion. Lekshmi who travels from Thiruvananthapuram to Konni demanded that Railways reschedule the timing of Venad Express and Madurai-Punalur passenger for the benefit of office-goers.

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