Give number to bus routes

Kochi: For 31-year-old Susnato Chatterji, a techie from Kolkata who works at Infopark in Kochi, catching a bus is harder than developing a program for his company. 

During his weekend trips to Kochi city he struggles to read the destination boards on buses written in Malayalam. He often misses a bus or catches the wrong bus, unless a helpful fellow traveller guides him.

Like Susnato, thousands of non-Malayalam speaking people work in Kochi thanks to the booming IT industry, growth of the city as a global tourist location, and the huge demand for migrant workers.

The city is getting increasingly cosmopolitan as a result and the demand for introducing the number system for bus routes is getting louder.

Neighbouring metro cities such as Chennai and Bengaluru have introduced the number system for bus routes.

District and transport officials say the demand as impractical as private buses often change their routes.

"In other states it is easy as the state transport service take the lion's share of the routes. Here, our Motor Vehicles Act gives freedom to buses to change their routes depending on their convenience and profit. We used to have a numbering system some 20 years ago, but this was dropped as it was not feasible," said B. J. Antony, the transport officer. K.J. Sohan, chairman of the town planning standing committee of Cochin Corporation points out that the number system can be introduced if we change the system.

"We should introduce the numbers for main bus routes. If that is not possible, it should be made mandatory to display the destination in at least three languages.