5.2 lakh voters make a beeline from city to natives

According to transport department officials, the corporations operated 13,000 buses till Monday 8 pm carrying 5.20 lakh passengers.

On Monday alone, the corporations operated about 2,500 buses to various destination in the State to help in the travel of one lakh passengers.

The state transport undertakings have planned to operate a total of 14,215 buses including 3,090 special buses from the city from April 1 to 5 to cater to the needs of the passengers travelling to the native places to cast their votes on Tuesday.

Till Sunday midnight, 4.22 lakh passengers travelled using 10,500 buses operated by the corporation. An official said the crowd was lesser than expected.

“During the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, a large number of people turned up at Koyambedu to travel to their natives. So we took steps to operate special buses like during the Pongal and Deepavali festival. But the crowd was less,” an official said.

S Saravanan, a native of Thanjavur, who works in a private company said he always travelled to his native town to cast his vote. “Though I was in double mind over travelling due to increasing number of COVID-19 cases, I decided to go as I had already reserved my bus tickets,” he said.