Tamil Nadu to operate 200 special buses for annual Velankanni festival

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu State Express Transport Corporation (SETC) will operate 200 special buses to Velankanni for the annual festival. The buses will depart from Chennai, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru and four other tier-II cities in the south that act as transit points.
In Chennai, these buses will leave from Egmore, Tambaram and Koyambedu Chennai Moffusil Bus Terminus (CMBT) and many will take the East Coast Road (ECR) route to reach Velankanni in Nagapattinam district."This is to ensure that passengers from south Chennai don't travel all the way to CMBT and travel all the way back along the same route," said an SETC official.
All these 200 buses are air-conditioned with seaters, seater-cum-sleeper berths and non-A/C air buses (deluxe/ultra deluxe services). Passengers can book tickets on www.redbus.in, www.paytm.com, www.busindia.com and www.tnstc.com (government's official website). Bookings are open now.
Those booking tickets will receive the bus conductor's mobile number and vehicle registration number through an SMS.
"By making government buses available on such platforms, passengers can compare fares charged by us and private omni bus operators and realise how economical our services are," the SETC official said.
In a related development, SETC has recently extended flexi-fare model for AC seater buses. Accordingly, 110 paise will be charged every km during lean/weekdays and it will be 130 paise/km during peak/weekends and festival seasons.
Initially, the model was introduced only in A/C and Non A/C sleeper buses in August 2018. Fares during peak days are 10%-15% higher compared to other days.