Hyderabad: Sankranti rush at bus stations

Hyderabad: The bus stations in the city including Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS) and Jubilee Bus Station (JBS), witnessed heavy rush of passengers on Saturday as the citizens were seen leaving for their native places, thanks to the start of vacations and also because of the Covid scare.

With vacations for schools and colleges starting on Saturday, the students particularly teenagers, were seen in large numbers in the MGBS on Saturday. Though the corporation announced additional buses, the number of buses was less compared to the demand. A few students at MGBS said that they had been waiting for long to catch their bus. "The buses are coming but almost all the seats are booked in advance reservations. There are no super luxury buses and only the express buses and that too seem to be in less numbers as we have been waiting here for the last one hour," said a student. Similar scenes were witnessed at the major bus stands in Dilsukhnagar, Uppal and other areas where the buses are operated in order to avoid crowding at MGBS.

The Covid protocols went for a toss at the station even as the staff at the station was seen announcing the commuters to wear masks. The passengers were seen wearing their masks below their chin. According to the officials about 1 lakh passengers used buses from the bus stations from the city as 800 additional buses were operated on Saturday. Normally, 4,600 buses are operated everyday from MGBS and JBS and today 600 additional buses were operated. The corporation had announced that it was planning to operate 4,318 special buses to clear the heavy rush of the passengers during the Sankranti. The authorities said that they would operate more buses if the rush increases.