End to unending woes of Aluva bus depot?

ALUVA: The sorry state of the KSRTC bus depot will soon be driven away if the word given by the elected representatives, who have recently visited the site, is to be relied upon. A group of elected representatives took stock of the plight of the bus station, following largescale complaints from the passengers and employees at the depot.The Kerala State Transport Workers Union (KSTWU), affiliated to the INTUC, had submitted a memorandum to the elected representatives demanding better facilities at the depot.Water stagnation is a major problem haunting the depot. Waste water and rain water from different parts of the town flow through the canal, passing through the middle of the depot yard. The sand and silt, accumulated in the canal block the flow in the canal, leading to stagnation of water. The Union members has urged that the drainage canal be shifted to one side of the depot. Aluva depot operates more than a hundred buses to different stations. Tens of thousands of commuters use the depot daily. But most of the buses are in poor condition. Buses had to suspend services owing to the non-availability of spare parts. The workshop functioning in the depot is also not well-equipped.  The passengers and transport workers demand the management to allot more new-model buses. Effective steps should be taken to operate long-distance buses from the depot. Traffic congestion in the depot is a common phenomenon. The commuters feel that a new entrance to the depot from the Pipeline Road would bring a permanent solution to the problem. A toilet attached to the retiring room for women would help the passengers to a great extend.  They also demanded aluminium covering to plug the leak in the roof of the depot building. The office of Angamaly depot was shifted to Aluva Depot temporarily owing to the construction of Angamaly KSRTC Depot. Even after the construction got over, the office was not shifted back to Angamaly depot.  The functioning of Angamaly depot in Aluva is also posing difficulty for the passengers and staff in Aluva and Angamaly depots. The Union urged the elected representatives to shift the depot to Angamaly immediately. Those who were part of the team included K P Dhanapalan MP, Anwar Sadath MLA and municipal standing committee chairman M Radhakrishnan. They interacted with the workers and passengers and promised that the grievances would be redressed immediately.