Salary first, then reforms, electric buses will be blocked on opening day itself, says CITU; Talks fail

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The electric bus services, which are all set to begin services in the capital city on Monday, will be stopped, said the CITU. The Air Rail City project to run electric buses for the city bus service will begin the next day. However, the management’s move to hand over the electric buses to SWIFT had provoked the unions. Following which, the management held talks with the union on Sunday, but it did not yield results. In KSRTC, the salary for the month of June is yet to be paid, forcing the unions to opt for strikes. Although, the CMD had offered to pay the salaries before August 5, the unions did not agree to it. The BMS has also announced that it will boycott SWIFT services on Monday.

The Air Rail City Circle, the eighth circle of the city circular, will start electric bus services tomorrow. The first service will be flagged off by Transport Minister Anthony Raju at around 9 am on Monday at Thampanoor central bus station. Along with this, electric buses will also be introduced in the rest of the circles. In the first phase, four buses will be operated in blue circles, where there are less passengers, and two electric buses will be operated in the rest of the circles. Two electric buses will be used for charging. The buses will be replaced as soon as they run out of charge.

The 24-hour Air Rail Circle connecting the airport, railway station and KSRTC bus station will start services on Monday (August 1). The service operates from the Thampanoor bus station and the central railway station to the Domestic (01) and International (02) terminals of the two airports in Thiruvananthapuram.

In the initial phase, one bus will run services at these two terminals every half an hour. The service will operate from Thiruvananthapuram central bus station and pass through Ponnara Sreedhar Park, central railway station picking up passengers from Overbridge, East Fort, Attakulangara, Manacaud, Mukkolakkal, Valiyathura Domestic Terminal, Shankhumukham, All Saints College, Chakkai, International Terminal, Chakkai Junction, Pettah, Pattoor, General Hospital and ends at Thampanoor via Kerala University, Palayam, Statue and Overbridge.

The service will operate in such a way that passengers, who have to go to the International Terminal, can travel back via Thampanoor, Overbridge, Palayam, Ayyankali Hall, Kerala University, General Hospital, Pattoor, Pettah, Chakkai, International Airport, All Saints, Shankhumugam, Valiyathura Domestic Terminal, Mukkolakkal and Manacaud.

The rehearsal of the electric buses was held in the capital on Saturday. The timing of the bus services will be adjusted during the trial run on Sunday from 7 am to 7 pm. Out of the total 25 electric buses, 23 will take part in the trial run. Two buses will be kept charged and buses that run out of charge will be replaced. In the first phase electric buses will run services along with other circles and gradually diesel buses will be withdrawn and replaced with electric ones.