Covid effect: No Diwali rush to home towns

Hyderabad: The covid pandemic has overshadowed the usual Diwali rush and the number of people traveling to their native places from trains and buses has slumped as much as by 55 per cent. The covid effect seems to have snuffed the spirit of the festive season when compared to last year. Even the number of trains plying, which were 725 during each year, has now come down to 100. "This year during Diwali season we are running 95 to 100 trains as the demand of passengers have come down. Daily in the entire SCR zone on an average 55000 passengers are using the train services," said a senior officer of SCR.

A majority of people traveling from Hyderabad take trains going towards Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Vishakhapatnam and Vijayawada. Earlier, by this time, daily huge rush used to be witnessed during the Diwali season at the railway stations, but this year Covid-19 has put paid to the plans of revellers seeking to head home this time.

"People are taking journey only when it is essential. The main reason is they are preferring to celebrate the festival at the places where they are now, and also due to fear of spreading of the virus. Recently, the inter-state buses have also started plying, but we are not even seeing 50 percent of the festive rush," said S Praneeth, Depot Manager, Jubilee Bus Station.

All the safety measure are being taken; each and every bus is being sanitised and a sanitised bottle is placed in all buses. Even at the railway station, only those with valid tickets are allowed and at all the platforms cleanliness is maintained as per following covid norms. "Each year by this time our bookings would be full, but this year hardly we have received any bookings. Compared to the previous year, we received only 10 per cent of interstate booking," said J Raju, travel agent, Sai Srinivasa Travels.