Thiruvananthapuram: A special train has been announced from Bengaluru to Kerala by the Indian Railways to tackle the crisis caused by an indefinite strike called by the the Inter-State Bus Owners Association (IBOA)’s Kerala chapter in protest to the alleged harassment by the Kerala Motor Vehicles Department.
The Bengaluru-Kochuveli special(06529) will start from Bengaluru at 11.30 pm on Thursday. It will reach Cochin and Thiruvananthapuram on Friday by 11.15 am and 4.15 pm, respectively. The train has 998 sleeper berths.
Another special train Kochuveli-Bengaluru special (06530) will begin services from Kochuveli at 6.05 pm on June 28. The ticket charge for the special train will be Rs 540.
On Sunday, besides the existing Kochuveli-Krishnarajapuram Special, the Southern Railway is planning to run one more special train from Thiruvananthapuram to Bengaluru. The train, starting from Thirunelveli, will pass through Nagercoil, Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Palakkad to reach Bengaluru.
KSRTC to introduce more services
Though KSRTC had introduced extra services earlier, they were scrapped due to lack of passengers.
Beginning this weekend, the KSRTC is planning to introduce more buses from Friday to Sunday. The Karnataka transport corporation has agreed to run 10 additional buses. The Kerala RTC announced that on Thursday and Friday, there will be around 50 special services from Bengaluru.
Meanwhile, the interstate bus owners’ association has again approached the government saying it is ready for talks. However, since transport minister A K Saseendran is down with chickenpox, talks are unlikely to be held soon.
