No passengers for Nava Kerala Bus; service halted for two days

Kozhikode: The Nava Kerala bus has been inactive for the past two days due to insufficient passengers.

The Garuda Premium Bus service on the Kozhikode-Bengaluru route has been halted on Wednesdays and Thursdays due to low passenger numbers.

This week, the bus earned Rs 55,000 on Monday and Rs 14,000 on Tuesday. However, due to minimal bookings on Wednesdays and Thursdays, the service was suspended. KSRTC officials have announced that the bus service will resume operations between Kozhikode and Bangalore from Friday onwards.

Some changes were made to the bus that the Chief Minister and other ministers traveled for the Nava Kerala Sadas. It started service on the Kozhikode-Bengaluru route from last May 5.

The permit of the Navakerala bus was changed earlier from Contract Garage Permit to Stage Carriage Permit in order to allow people to travel by paying a ticket. The change came after reports of the bus lying idle for months.

After the Nava Kerala Sadas, the BharatBenz bus was shifted to a workshop in Bengaluru for refurbishment. The arrangement was to make a change for KSRTC's needs.

But the vehicle, which had lied in the workshop for several months, was then shifted to a Pappanamcode workshop of KSRTC and lied there for almost a month. 

The purchase of the bus at a cost of Rs 1.15 crore for the Nava Kerala Sadas had sparked a controversy in the state.