70 p.c private buses in Sattari SHUT operations; commuters inconvenienced

VALPOI: Call it COVID19 impact or the government’s negligent attitude, the traditional businesses of locals are dying a slow death.
In Sattari, which is entirely a rural area, 70 per cent of private buses have shut operations due to the COVID19 lockdowns and vehicles now not in road-worthy conditions.
The closure of private buses has led to inconvenience to a lot of people from rural areas.
Villagers have demanded that the government should start the operations of these buses immediately.
It is learned that the government imposed a curfew several times after the start of the Corona. This made it difficult to get travellers from rural areas to commute, which has led to the closure of private bus operators in many places.
Currently, the situation is slowly returning to normal, but passengers have not improved yet.
Sattari taluka is entirely rural, and people in rural areas depend on private bus services.
With 70 per cent of the buses have been shut down there is a huge rush of passengers. Some villages do not have a full day private bus. This is causing a lot of problems for the passengers.
The villagers were getting better from private buses as Kadamaba was not dependable. However, now with the closure of private buses, they have to face many problems. some people hire vehicles to go to Valpoi.
Meanwhile, when contacted, some private bus owners said that it was unaffordable to do business as the expected number of passengers was not available and fuel prices were constantly rising.
Also, they said they had no money to repair the buses.
This has forced many owners to keep their buses closed.
They said the government needs to provide a special financial package for private bus owners, and they have also made demands before authorities and leaders, but there has been no action in this regard.
The owners have clarified that there is no other option but to close the buses in rural areas.
The locals said that if the owners cannot afford to do business, the government has demanded that the buses of Kadamba Corporation should be started from rural areas.
“At least one bus service is required in each village. Otherwise, the transport system in rural areas is likely to collapse, the government should pay serious attention to this,” they said.
Mahadev Gawas of Nagargaon Sattari said that private buses are not coming to the rural areas and are suffering a lot.
Expressing his reaction, Somnath Gaonkar from Satare demanded that the government pay special attention to the transport system in rural areas. The transport department has demanded that this matter be taken seriously.