KOCHI: In its efforts to vitalise the public transport system in the city, the state government has decided to press into service 100 more KSRTC buses within six months. The authorities have also given in-principle nod to the decision by the Vyttila Mobility Hub Society to make the hub functional day and night. However, the decision on whether the KSRTC will commence night services in Kochi is still pending as the meeting convened in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday in this regard failed to come up with an amicable solution.“A special committee comprising the KSRTC managing director, the Vyttila Mobility Hub Society managing director and the Transport Secretary will conduct a study on whether night services are feasible in Kochi. The committee has been instructed to submit its report within a week,” Transport Minister V S Sivakumar told Express.The minister said the KSRTC was fully supportive to the efforts by the Vyttila Mobility Hub Society to make the hub the centre of the public transport activities in the city. “A favourable decision will be taken after getting the report of the committee,” he added.Earlier, the KSRTC authorities had said that they planned to spend `20 crore to purchase new buses during 2011-2012. Apart from the Transport Minister, the meeting convened on Wednesday by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was attended by KSRTC managing director Alexander Luke and Vyttila Mobility Hub Society managing director M Beena.Expressing satisfaction over the outcome of the meeting, Beena told Express that the Hub Society was hopeful of shifting the entire operations to the hub within six months. “The main reason that the KSRTC authorities put forth at the meeting for not shifting the operations was the insufficient number of buses with them to conduct Vyttila-Vyttila night services in the city during night. But with the Minister promising them more buses, we are hopeful of shifting the entire inter-state services to the hub within six months,” she added.Though the Vyttila Mobility Hub has started functioning 24x7, the desired result of the facility is yet to be attained as KSRTC buses are not operating from the hub at night. Now, the long-distance KSRTC buses are entering the hub only between 8 am and 8 pm. However, with state government’s intervention, the authorities believe that a favourable decision in this regard will be taken soon after the committee submitting its report.
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