Kozhikode: At 7.57 am, one bus starts service from the Pantheerankavu bus stand. By 8 am, three other services start from the same station. All buses head to the city and they have to reach the finishing point at Mananchira at 8.30 am.
Within three minutes, four buses ply along the same route and must maintain a running time of 30 minutes. This unscientific schedule is causing a slew of issues for the private bus operators in the district.
With minimum running time, the bus drivers have to negotiate damaged roads to keep up with the schedule. In the process, they drive rashly, raising the threat of accidents. In Kozhikode, race on the road, arguments and clashes between the bus employees have become a regular scene.
City to Medical College, City to Beypore and City to Feroke are some of the routes where these kinds of clashes happen regularly. Kuttiady-Kozhikode is another route plagued by unscientific timing and regulations.
Recently, a bus driver collapsed after being allegedly attacked by an employee from another bus on the same route at the Mofussil bus stand over an argument on the timing. Two months ago, a driver was dragged off the bus and beaten up by car passengers alleging speeding.
"It's common here to allot the same starting time to many buses. In such cases, they reach a mutual understanding and fix a few minutes' gap before starting the service. Even then, it causes altercations," said N V Sathar, District Joint Secretary, Bus Operators Association. He said there must be at least a gap of five minutes between the two services. In some cases, authorities allot starting time with a few minutes' gap. A 5-minute gap is allotted to services between the city and nearby districts or the outskirts. Still, bus drivers have to deal with heavy traffic and low-quality roads.
The bus operators and employees allege the transport authority follows a 20-year-old timing system. At present, the running time from the Kozhikode Mofussil Bus Stand to the Kuttiadi Bus stand is one and a half hours. "It's very difficult to run 50 km distance within this short time, especially because the roads on the route are pathetic. So, the operators came to an understanding and extended the running time to 1 hour and 50 minutes. We are being forced to rush to reach destinations within the shortest time," said a bus operator plying on the Kuttiadi -Kozhikode route.
Within the city limits, each city bus must travel 2.5 km within five minutes. For buses plying to destinations outside the city, the time limit to cover a kilometre is 2 minutes. Though this timing is fine in the rural areas, it's too difficult inside the city limits because of the heavy traffic and crowd, point out operators.
Limited stop abuses have to cover 50 km within one-and-a-half hours, while short-distance buses get 10 more minutes to cover the same distance.
Operators also point to the large number of buses running on each route. They point out that 400 buses ply within city limits as per the High Court order limiting the number of buses. However, there are allegations that several operators gained permits showing their route being extended to the outer city areas.
"The number of vehicles is increasing. That's the problem we are facing. Fixing the timings is not our personal decisions. It's done following a hearing at the board meeting by the Regional Transport office," said an MVD official.