Following the centre’s decision to allow the inters-state movement of people and operation private and public transport, Andhra Pradesh is mulling resuming of buses to various state capital especially Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
What is coming in the way is the fact that all these cities, especially Hyderabad and Chennai are coronavirus hotspots.
In fact, whatever cases reported from Telangana are from Hyderabad (GHMC) alone. The Telangana outside Hyderabad is relatively corona free. Similarly, Chennai is the Tamil Nadu’s hotspot. TN is the third most-affected state after Maharashtra and Gujarat with 11,224 cases, 639 fresh cases being reported on Sunday. And Chennai, the most affected district, alone contributed 482 cases yesterday. Chennai has so far reported 6,750 cases.
The government has to take a call against this backdrop.
There has been a huge pressure on the government to ply busses to the neighbouring state capitals. Thousands of people have got stranded in these capitals and are eagerly waiting for relaxation of restrictions on interstate travel.
As the centre now left the matter to the mutual consent of the concerned states, APSRTC officials are reportedly formulating guidelines keeping in view the Lockdown coronavirus protocol.
The issue is expected to figure in the meeting chief minister YS Jagan is holding with officials Monday.
Official sources said the authorities would approach the neighbouring states for their consent once the chief minister announces the decision.
TR&B principal secretary MT Krishna Babu TNIE media that he would discuss the matter with the chief minister. “ We need to put a system in place and we have to look at the testing and quarantining capacity while taking a call,” he said.
However, many are apprehensive about the negative fallout of the decision as all Indian major cities including Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru are declared corona hotspots. Referring to the potential danger in bringing the people stranded in these cities, Krishan Babu said managing the passengers arriving from these hotspots would become a herculean task.
As for inter-district bus services, Krishna Babu said a final view is likely in today’s meeting as the CM had already indicated to run the intra-district services in the previous meetings.