Alappuzha: The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) resumed services on the arterial Alappuzha-Changanassery (AC) Road after a gap of 26 days.
The remarkably beautiful 24-km road, with paddy fields and backwaters on either side right across Kuttanad, becomes a large swathe of a water body during the rains.
The road gets inundated, thereby erasing the bounds between road and lake. With incessant rain in the past few days and the release of water from dams in Kerala, the road has been under water. But KSRTC decided to operate services on an experimental basis.
The blue-and-white public transporter was crowded and the bus moved slowly along the Mankompu stretch, where it crossed the bridge and reached the junction to proceed towards Changanassery in adjoining Kottayam district.
The services were suspended on July 16 following heavy rains that inundated the Mankompu region. Last week, water receded a bit, prompting KSRTC to operate its services partially.
The first bus running on Thursday doesn’t necessarily mean resumption of service. “We will have to inspect the current level of water and see whether buses can run more regularly along AC Road,” a KSRTC official said.
There have been complaints about the road going particularly unusable along the Mankompu stretch. Following this, ministers G Sudharakan and legislator Thomas Chandy intervened, following which the Kerala State Transport Project started repairs.
As on Friday, water-logging continued from Mankompu Nasrath Junction to the Party Office and Mankompu Bridge to the Block Junction.
There is relief in water-logging around Parassery junction and also Nedumudi.
