Tirupati: Covid-19 puts brakes on transport sector

Tirupati: The current imbroglio arising out of the spread of coronavirus and the resultant closure of the famous Lord Venkateswara temple at Tirumala and other temples in and around Tirupati will have a huge adverse impact on the transport industry. At least 20.000 families have been relying directly on transport service with more people add to the tally indirectly like mechanics, spare part sellers and so on.

The figures reveal the gravity of the situation. There are around 12,000 vehicles of all types which ply between Tirupati and Tirumala normally. Of them, nearly 7,000 vehicles are local vehicles in 18 taxi stands in Tirupati and 11 stands in Tirumala which made it one of the most flourishing businesses in the temple city. These include taxis, Sumos and other vehicles and many of them make 2-3 trips a day to Tirumala from Tirupati. Many vehicles take pilgrims to other pilgrim destinations around the city like Srikalahasti, Kanipakam, Golden temple in Vellore, Tiruttani and Kanchipuram and charge up to Rs 8,000-Rs 9,000 depending on the places to be covered. Besides, these vehicles engage in making trips to cover local temples in the vicinity of Tirupati for which they charge Rs 1,500-2,000.

In Tirumala also, about 650 plus Mahindra Commander vehicles offer dropping services to pilgrims from one place to another from morning to night with two drivers for each vehicle in two shifts. Each driver may earn at least Rs 800-1,500 per day after what they pay to the owners. Here too, pilgrims hire vehicles to see places like Japali, Papanasam, Aakasa Ganga, Shilatoranam, Srivari Padalu, etc., for which they need to pay Rs 1,000 per vehicle or Rs 120 per head.

To cover all these trips, vehicle owners employ at least two drivers per vehicle. All of them have lost most of their work during the past one week and it came to a zero in the last two days. Huge drop in the number of pilgrims with several travel restrictions amidst Covid-19 threat has made life difficult for them and now they find it hard to meet their both ends.

Waiting cab drivers at Tirupati railway station have asked The Hans India to take their plight to the notice of officials and government so that they may come to their rescue. "Suddenly life has become so miserable for us. We could not feed our families which makes us to think of going as construction labourers so that we can get Rs 500 a day. The government has to do something and provide some assistance to us," they quipped. On the other hand, taxi owners among them were demanding the government to instruct the banks and financial institutions to help them by not asking for instalment payments of vehicle loans for another two months. President of Sri Venkateswara Sumo Owners Association B Muni Prasad sought waiver of vehicle tax for this quarter as they were not in a position to pay it as the business reached the rock bottom now and the uncertainty on future still prevails.