Holiday Rush Spurs Soaring Airfares and Packed Buses
Deccan ChronicleChennai: A long week-end, ensuring four continuous holidays for those working in five-day week offices if they just took a day’s leave on Friday, has led to flight charges shooting through the roof, private buses starting from the Kilambakkam bus terminus demanding Rs 3500 for a bus ride to Kanyakumari and the highway leading to the districts south of Chennai clogged with vehicular traffic from Wednesday. Since trains were fully booked in advance, even four months ahead of the journey, and the unreserved coaches could not accommodate more than a certain number of people even if they packed themselves like sardines, the crowd spilled over to the long-distance bus stand and the airport. Even in the Omni buses from Kilambakkam, the rate quote for Salem was Rs 3000 while it was Rs 2500 for Coimbatore, Rs 3000 for Madurai and Rs 3500 for any destination south of Madurai like Tirunelveli, Nagercoil and Kanyakumari. Keeping with the trend of employees leaving home for long week-ends, some private companies even gave an additional holiday on Friday to enable them to have a long holiday without taking leave.
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