Made a trip on Infant Jesus.
This is not a Volvo Multi or a Volvo B7R it is a normal Ashok Leyland non A/c 36
seater Azad built coach. Not sure whether it is a 12m Chassis or normal 10.8m
chassis, I think it is a 12m Chassis since there were 7 windows on the side and
a door, for normal bus it will be 6 window coach.
My trip was planned from Chennai to Nagercoil on the 22nd
May and the return was on 24th May2012.
IJ(Infant Jesus) does not have an online booking facility
hence tried from May 1, may 4, May 7 may 10 to get a booking on 22nd
May, each time I will get a response as the charts are not opened.
Finally on May 14th when contacted, the agent
told the booking is open and asked him to block a seat for 22nd
Journey over phone, the agent replied the booking is made I can come and
collect the ticket at any time.
Evening went to Perungalathur and told my name and asked for
the IJ ticket, he has noted down my name and phone number in a notebook and
issued me the ticket on confirming both Name and Mobile, never thought the
booking will be finalized over the phone itself as I am not known to the
booking agent earlier. Seat was 21 and Fare was 620 Rs for the 6pm Koyambedu departure. Paid him money and
collected the ticket.
Booking agent told me
the bus will come at 6.30pm at perungalathur but marked the ticket as 6 pm
reporting time at Perungalathur. Asked him why he gave seat no 21 even though I
have made the first booking on the chart opening day, he told me they have the
allotted seats from 21 onwards, so to get a seat ahead we have to reach their
CMBT or Egmore office but the ticket mentioned a note for those concerned with
the seat numbers states “ AS the bus is an Airbus service seat allotted at the
front or rear will have the same effect and there will not be any discomfort”.
Asked him why the booking was denied for many days agent told me that the fare
is revised hence the booking was not commenced.
On the date of journey took a MTC chengalpet bus from
tambaram and reached Perungalathur by 5.15pm and was standing at the front of
the booking agent office, on May 22 the bus stand was very much crowded and all
the buses entering in to the bus stand left with standing passengers by SETC and
TNSTC buses. Thinking that the IJ bus will come and stop in front of the office,
thought of sitting inside the agent’s office, just asked him where the IJT bus
will come and stop he informed me the bus will not come to service road of the Perungalathur bus stand nor in front of the agent’s office but will halt at a
point after the Perungalathur signal about 150 metres away from the agent’s
office. Never knew this even on the day of collecting my ticket I saw SRM and
Rathimeena buses stopping in front of the agent’s office.
Moved and stood near to the signal and waited for my bus to
arrive from 5.35 onwards, there were many people waiting for the private omni
buses over there meanwhile Nagercoil TNSTC, SETC nagercoil Kanyakumari
Trivandrum trichy and Salem buses were coming and leaving with all seats full.
Slowly noticed the timings on the wind shield it was 16:30, 16:45, 17:00 and so
on so waiting for the 18:00 departure series to pass by, meanwhile the first omni
bus TMR to tirunelveli came and stopped by the road side they stopped for more
than 25 minutes and the traffic got held up a police constable came and told
him to move, TMR bus went and parked by the side of the road then came Ajith
travels.
Slowly 18:00 departure SETC buses started coming by 6.40 pm
still my bus was not there I was getting impatient and by 7pm the white beauty
arrived TN 74 S 7002 registration came to halt at perungalathur immediately I
got inside the second driver asked for my seat number and allowed me to get in,
the bus was almost full with 10 seats vacant at perungalathur few more people
got in and the bus had 3 vacant seats at the rear.
MP3 song was playing and checked the bus it had 36 seats
with calf support, wide seats with lot of leg room no rear glass and the front
driver partition is also completely blocked with no window/ glass to view the
driver cabin or the road the bus left immediately and the cabin was closed
there was no engine noise since the windows were kept open the outside noise
and wind noise was getting in. Body built by Azad is very good no rattling
noise interior and seats were well laid out, bus had done 49000km still it
looked new
I got a window seat tried to place my bag on the Hat rack it
had a hand grab bar running which was not allowing the bag to slide in, tried
to squeeze my bag with no success placed my bag underneath my seat. Immediately
the fellow on the aisle seat asked me what time the bus will reach Nagercoil,
Like a TNSTC/ SETC driver I too got irritated by the question, I too believe by
informing the time of arrival many times the bus has reached the destination
much later, gave him a cold response and told it will take 12 hours. Then
immediately he asked me so will it reach at 7 o clock I heard it will reach at
5 am, I gave him another cold stare and told look at the traffic if it reaches
early it will be better, meanwhile there was a traffic jam from Vandalur to
Guduvancheri the bus was crawling.
On the other side there were another two passengers seated
they started talking on the mobile loudly I don’t understand this when someone
is not able to hear properly on the mobile they immediately start to raise
their voice, in a bus due to outside noise the voice will be feeble but their
voice will be clear on the other receiving end still they shout at their
highest pitch. So this fellow started to give the update to his receiving
party, his conversation was like this, I didn’t get the ticket in our regular
bus and hence I am travelling in this infant jesus bus they are telling the bus
will reach tirunelveli by 4.00 am so I will get down at tirunelveli and take my
next bus at 4.45 you don’t worry I will call you at tirunelveli. The message
was so clear that the entire bus heard it. I thought so the bus will enter in
to the tirunelveli so no bypass ride so it is going to take still some time.
Meanwhile the aisle seat passenger again started asking me
where I am working, I told him I work at guindy then he replied he works at
ayanavaram or something stays in chengalpet, meanwhile the bus crossed Paranur
toll plaza as usual there was pile up at toll booth cleared and entered in to
the Chengalpet underpass service road, I was shocked is this bus entering in to chengalpet even
TNSTC villupuram buses skip chengalpet I started to groan, but the bus stopped
at the service road of the underpass and picked 2 passengers and immediately
came to NH45 I was so relieved and didn’t know that there is this short cut for
Chengalpet pickup. Meanwhile at the SRM college they have made a good pickup
point and booking office, many travels are stopping there to pick passengers.
My aisle seat passenger chipped in my house is here only at chengalpet and
showed me a road informing me that road goes in to chengalpet town I heard without interest.
Now the bus was full and the cleaner came and collected the
ticket stub, we were crossing chengalpet bypass and the run was getting speed,
the air was coming in now. Outside was dark and the bus started overtaking
other vehicles I was enjoying the run, soon after we entered in to the
chengalpet Bridge hardly we must have crossed 50metres in to the bridge there
was a big traffic jam and vehicles were moving on the wrong side of the other
bridge and going towards Villupuram we got stuck and I peeped out of the window
there was a continuous line up of head lamps indicating vehicles are standing
in a pile up. With so much honking and stop go stop go movement finally we came
to head on with a Cement bulk carrier this vehicle has entered the bridge and
coming on the wrong side and was causing all the Jam. The bridge is just enough
for 2 vehicles we crossed that the vehicle and soon started cruising. The bus
had such a pickup that I didnt hear the
engine revving sound the gearshift were smooth and there was no downshift and
raising the engine RPM, the bus was cruising at around 90 km I believe this I
came to know from the overtaking vehicles speedometer many indica and Tavera
overtook us the speedometer needle were at 12 o clock position checked with a
Tavera speedometer later and found at 12 o clock position it is 90KMPH so the
bus was running at 85 kmph.
After CGL they played the movie ARAVAN, the print was Malaysian
print the clarity was good, the speaker volume levels were not so high the film
was audible, TV was a LCD tv, the movie was interesting in parts and had good
suspense element I was watching it intermittently and gazing outside to see the
speed of the bus.
Reached ulundurpet Royal restaurant at 9.30pm and the bus stopped
for dinner, there was Ajith, Rathimeena AL padmapuri, TMR, and other few
travels. The break lasted for 30 minutes and we left at 10 pm, all through the
break the engine was not stopped it was running at idle speed, the second
driver took to the wheels from here, soon after we left we were at the toll
plaza were there was a huge jam with 5 to 6 vehicles standing in each lane and
were honking continuously, it disturbed so much, but none of the toll plaza
fellows were regulating nor the queue was moving after a good 20 minutes of
cacophony we edged a lorry and went ahead to the toll plaza, after crossing the
toll plaza found a a police jeep and a policeman who was not at all perturbed
by the happening. Then we were running towards trichy we crossed the other 2
toll plazas tholudur and padalur there was a queue but we could sail it in 7 to
9 minutes, crossed trichy around 12.15 pm, crossing the flyover we crossed
viralimalai toll plaza I thought now the driver change will happen but the bus
was cruising non stop, there were no kilometer stones from trichy to Madurai road,
one sign board showed 90 km to Madurai, I thought now atleast the driver change
should happen but the bus never stopped and not sure when the driver was
relieved.
I slept and soon at 3.15 am the cleaner shouted Kovilpatti, I
was surprised, after crossing kovilpatti and 4 am we entered Tirunelveli after
alighting the passengers continued to nagercoil at all these points no halting
it was just stopped to alight the passengers immediately we started.
At 5.25 am reached Nagercoil bus stand bus stopped in front
of the booking office. So in all it took 10 hours from Perungalathur to
Nagercoil after deducting 30 minutes dinner break, the service is non stop.
There were no rash overtaking, sudden braking or down
shifting gear to show aggression, it was controlled drive, still the engine was
having so much power the speed was not at the engine’s peak rpm, still it had
reserve power.
We overtook all the SETC/ TNSTC buses one TNSTC bus I spotted
at perungalthur TN 74 N 1495 was overtaken at thovalai I suppose it was the 4.30
/ 5 pm departure from CMBT magenta
colour super deluxe, this bus has also maintained consistent speed shich we
were able to overtake at thovalai only. Rathimeena was overtaken at
viralimalai.
After getting down the bus and walking towards the home the
next seat co passenger walked up t o me and was telling “didn’t I tell you it
will reach at 5pm, you only told it will reach
at 7 pm” . I silently nodded him.
Return journey was
also by Infant jesus on 24th 7 pm Nagercoil departure we reached the
bus stand by 6.30pm, Infant jesus with steel alloys was standing on the bus
stand thought that must be bus but after enquiring at the booking office I was
told 7 pm bus is a marthandam departure,the NGL dep is at 8 pm, I asked the booking office
person when they will introduce on line booking and Volvo service, he replied
they are not interested in online booking wherein he says many people book and
don’t report for the journey in that way genuine passengers are not able to
travel, Volvo 1 bus they have purchased or about to purchase but it is a KA registration due to tax issues
they have not pursued further. He told at present they are concentrating on
punctuality and customer service, my return ticket was 600 RS, I told him that I
paid 620 through his agent at perungalathur he told their fare is 600rs only,
and advised me to book at their CMBT office for the right fare.
There was universel sleeper ARC, ABT were readying for departure
that day due to petrol hike there was bandh in KL, not sure but Jeppiar Volvo,
Parveen snooze, Parveen Benz Multi, Tippusultan sleeper and Bharathi multi were
all at nagercoil in the evening 6.30 pm. There was one more Multi Volvo Jaibharathi
not sure where it is bound to.
My bus from Marthandam came at 6.35pm, the ABT, Perinbavilas
A/c, and ARC were blocking so it was at
the far end of the bus stand, I went to the bus and asked the driver wether can I board the bus he asked me to get
in, ther e were already 6 passengers then slowly halted at the entrance of the
bus stand after universel’s departure at 6.50pm bus rolled out there were
hardly 10 to 12 passengers, bus then stopped at tirunelveli and almost all the
seats got filled, one fellow changed his
seat and occupied at the seat behind me, the cleaner was counting the seats and
informing 1 fellow has not turned up, they were checking the ticket bookings
and wasting time, finally one more person from the cabin came and told the
other cleaner that this fellow (seated behind me )has changed his seat then he asked him to occupy his sea and the 2 seats
got filled up. We left tirunelveli and strted racing after reaching the bypass.
At tirunelveli, bluewings, perinba
vilas, ARC ABT and 1 SRm multi were all standing near the bus stand.
Before reaching Tirunelveli ABT came to overtaking us once ,
but we went ahead and it never followed. Stopped at sattur( not sure) at 9.30 pm for dinner, afterwards we started at 9.55 pm,
again the run continued we were almost overtaking all the buses, the ABT also
was overtaken, but however 1 professional courier 407 and a ST courier Eicher
they overtook us, ST courier we were able to over take it twice, but
professional courier was not at all to be touched. I don’t know what
modifications they carry out, on many occasions I have seen the professional
courier van racing like anything.
Movie OK OK was started at Tirunelveli, this time too good
quality print, my son enjoyed the movie thoroughly.
AS usual in the return also there was a big line up at
Padalur,uludurpet, tindivanam and chengalpet toll plazas, the bus never stopped for the
driver change or for any other break, not knowing how the driver change occurs.
Reached perungalathur at 5.45 am and asked the driver that I need to get down
at chromepet the driver stopped right in front of my house at 6.05 am, I thanked
and waved him. The other driver was sleeping in the cabin. Return journey took
11 hours the tirunelveli mixup took almost 45 minutes. Overall good quality bus
no noise vibration rattling, good suspension in all the four wheels and more
legspace. Definitely good service, good crew and good timing.
The return was in TN
74AB 2007 air cracked wind shield, Onward was TN 74 S 7002( not sure of the
regn numbers)
