Deepavali rush: Lakhs of passengers leave Chennai for their hometowns
As per transport department estimates, more than 3.5 lakh passengers traveled in regular and special operated by the transport corporations from Thursday night.
Passengers leave Chennai for their hometowns (Photo: Hemanathan M)
CHENNAI: Traffic came to standstill around Koyambedu CMBT as thousands of passengers left the city for their hometowns, on Friday night, to celebrate Deepavali.
As per transport department estimates, more than 3.5 lakh passengers traveled in regular and special operated by the transport corporations from Thursday night. Of the 3.5 lakh passengers, 1.36 lakh passengers traveled on Thursday as the department operated a total of 2,734 buses.
Moreover, around 76,000 passengers had booked online tickets to travel on Friday and more than 1.46 lakh passengers have booked tickets to travel from Saturday.
Also, around one lakh passengers traveled in private omni buses on Friday night.
The state transport corporations including State Express Transport Corporation operate 16,895 special buses across the state between November 9 and 11 with 10,975 buses from Chennai and 5,920 buses from other towns to facilitate the public.
Also, arrangements have been made to operate 13,292 buses including special buses from November 13 to November 15 to facilitate persons returning after the festival.
As many as 9,467 buses will be operated to Chennai from other cities and 3,825 buses will be operated from Chennai to other cities.
Transport minister SS Sivasankar who inspected the Koyambedu bus terminus on Friday evening said that senior officials have been posted at the bus stands to monitor the bus operations.
