Thursday, December 27, 2012

Trip on Infant Jesus Travels from Chennai to Nagercoil- 2012 dec

Friends, made a trip on Infant Jesus Travels from Chennai to Nagercoil on 22nd December and Return on 25th December, the trip was memorable one due to the fact I was able to get two new friends, Allen Raj and Lakshman

Onward 22-12-12 Perungalthur to Nagercoil, Bus 9.15 Pm CMBT to Nagercoil IJT this is supposed to be the 225 HP CRS engine TN 74 AB 2007 with Alloy wheels.

22nd December is the starting of the Christmas vacation and was searching for tickets, as usual the online reservation was filling fast, IJT don’t have their online booking facility, it is still not operational anyway clicked the request button of the website nothing happened after submitting the personal detail.

Contacted the IJT Nagercoil office and told the requirement, 3 journeys were to be performed, 22nd Chennai to Nagercoil, then Return on 25th and my son and wife will be returning on 28th December.

Chennai and 8 Pm dep from Nagercoil tickets are booked, and for us to board the Bus from perungalathur no need to show the tickets we can board the bus informing the cellphone number Fare 650Rs.

Date of Journey Allen called me asked whether I am boarding at Koyambedu so that we could meet there, but my son’s school exam was there and after that starting to Koyambedu from home will surely take 2 hours to reach, hence told him we are boarding from Perungalathur.

Started from home around 8.30pm expecting the crowd, from the NH45, Chennai Bypass intersection to perungalathur there was heavy traffic jam we slowly inched and reached by 9pm.

The Bus stop looked like Ranganathan street crowd, there were people everywhere and road was full of vehicles. While waiting there, saw around 4 buses of Vivegam, surely 10 buses of KPN, SRM Volvo B7r, Leyland and Multiaxle combination of around 8 buses, not to name the others like SPS, KPT, Kutties, Joy, Krishna, TVLS, Jayavilas, Amarnath,Subethra, Hindustan, Hasan, susee,TMR sleeper, Kallada 2 multi and many others were going. 

Saw 2 NL (690 regn no) registered Shamasardar sleeper buses proceeding towards Chennai.
By 9.25pm the 8.15 pm IJT came and left, the attender told the next bus will arrive in another 15 minutes. Padmapuri blue colour and RMT ozone Sleeper passes by , Snooze bus of Parveen also passed.

Then Jeppiar AC bus came and it was at perungalathur for more than 25 minutes, by 9.30 Bethlehem passed no halt at perungalathur.
All along the traffic was heavy and the buses were constantly honking to get the way.
Allen informed me he has left CMBT, and was not able to see IJT or Bharathi as they must have started from the Petrol pump he told.

By 10 pm IJT arrived at Perungalathur and many of us boarded may be around 10 persons, the Driver and attender were in Uniform, a new feature. Drivers were on White shirt and Blue pants, the cleaner was wearing a Blue stripes shirt and blue pants. The drivers were new to me not seen before and both were of middle aged and lean.

The bus stopped at eraniamman temple and then commenced, due to Christmas the cabin was decorated with star and the entire windshield had the colour lights.

Tickets were checked and we told that tickets were not issued for us, then 1 passenger called the IJT office and gave the phone to the attender, the attender was talking in the phone informing 6 persons are there in the bus without tickets and the other person informed him that they are all booked passengers. Then the attender didn’t ask for any other thing. The movie Yaardi Nee mohini was on.

Road was full of traffic we reached Chengalpet toll plaza by 10.30 pm and just after paying the toll it was stopped by the side for a Bio break, then it started, we were updating our position with allenraj his Padmapuri Multi was behind us by a 15 minutes gap.

By 11.12 we crossed melmaruvthur, I switched on the GPS and tracking the speed it has reached 107 km.
The next 4 toll plazas Tindivanam 11.22pm , Vikravandi 12am and Ulundurpet 12.45 am, THoludur 1.35am were so crowded that in each toll plaza we were to crawl for 15 to 18 minutes to pay and come out.

This bus is a non stop service so no stopping at the hotel, after crossing Ulundurpet toll gate the second driver took his turn, after ulundurpet the traffic was slightly less and the bus was maintaining a top speed of 113km

At ulundurpet toll saw, Universel, Tippu Sultan, Bharathi and KTC multi, this KTC multi is proceeding to which place, it didn’t go via salem it was there in the next Tholudur toll plaza also KL 11 7776. After crossing the toll here Bharathi overtook us.

The bus halted just before padalur toll plaza for a Bio break of NHAI Wash room, it halted for 15 minutes, Driver change happened at 2.16 am here,while there many buses passed us, Susee, Hasan KPT, KPK, Kutties, Ajith, SRM zedone sleeper. KPN buses were maintaining good speed

We crossed padalur toll plaza by 2.30am and from here for some time the bus was having a sedate run may be around 80km, then the next toll plaza at Viralimalai was at 3 am, here SRM white Multi and Standard Big Bus Multi were proceeding towards Chennai.

I slept for sometime from viralimalai to Madurai, the bus entered the city, at 4.45 we were at Thirumangalam here parveen snooze was overtaken, and RMT Allen’s bus overtook us here, Kayathar was reached at 6am and entered Tirunelveli by 6.30 am, one driver got down here started after a 10 minutes halt, Nanguneri was crossed at 7.10 am then afterwards Allen informed me he is getting down at Kavalkinaru and told me he will wait there to wave to me, standing on a Bakery at the LHS, In my bus all Left window seats were occupied and I was sitting on the RHS, as the wind was Chill all the winows were closed, anyway I moved to the LHS and waved to Allen, he didn’t notice me but I noticed him, just after crossing Kavalkinaru 2 passengers sitting on the LHS got down, they didn’t notice the attender shouting as Kavalkinaru after crossing some distance they got down, if they vacated the seats early I would have made Allen to notice me.

At Valliyoor the other IJT CRS bus AB 2070 crossed us, not sure how both buses were in NGL at the same time, even on 25th While leaving I was in the 8 pm bus, at Bus stand 2 nos IJT was Standing, do they have extra buses I thought they owned 3 pairs only. It is unlikely that 9 pm bus was cancelled for 23 and 24 being the rush season.
At valliyoor we overtook one SETC UD 794 Chennai to Thiruvanthapuram 18:30 dep sticker was pasted on the front, so we have overtook the 18:30 dep with a 21:15 departure
Reached Nagercoil at 8 pm the website shows the arrival as 7am but due to the traffic we were late but surely they can still saved 30 minutes but they didn’t race, in my view the 6:15 pm departure bus is faster even with the 30 minutes dinner break it reaches in 10 hours (from PRGL to NGL) this bus with no dinner break and CRS engine also took the same 10 hours, the drivers didn’t rip, the engine was never found revving it was a constant humming sound, it appears that the engine can still race a 30KMph more.
Minimal use of horns, the video was switched off immediately after the movie got over, the volume level of the movie was bit high, this bus had the big subwoofer setup at the last row. While nearing samayapuram we were overtaking from left a SRM sleeper (going on the right lane) and on the left lane a SETC bus which was moving, stopped suddenly and we have to slam the brakes harder, our bus has crossed the SRM sleeper midway and the SRM driver was honking fearing our bus will occupy his lane as my window was parallel to the SRM bus driver cabin I watched his reaction honking and looking at our bus whether it will come to his side or not, luckily our bus didn’t change lane and stopped with a hard braking effect of retarder brakes

During the trip a total of 73 sms was exchanged between me and Allen for updating our position.

MRP bus was standing at a petrol pump, Rathimeena Ozone sleeper 8 pm departure was also entering the bus stand the RMT multi 2+1was leaving to Thiruvananthapuram.

Return was by 8pm IJT Nagercoil to Chennai TN 74 AC 7002, I was walking towards the bus stand received a call by 7.35pm from IJT, informed them I am on the way reached the bus 7.40pm the agent called my name and confirmed while nearing the bus, and asked me to board the bus. PAdmapuri Multi Rathimeena white sleeper and Chendur were all waiting at the Bus stand. Saw both TN 74 AB 2070 and TN 74 AB 2007 IJT standing at the Nagercoil bus stand, not sure how the pairing bus was also at the same point. 

By 7.50pm the bus started, the driver I think I have seen him in an earlier trip, messaged Lakshman and he told me he will come and wait at Tirunelveli to meet me ( his bus was SRM multi 10.30 pm dep) we reached tirunelveli by 9 .10 pm, he was there waiting shook hands and talked to him, the seats were filled up and we left with a 5 minutes break, Jerusalem and Bluewings buses were waiting here.

Movie Mankothiparavai waas on i slept and didnt watch.
 
This bus is also non stop service no dinner break he stopped at the Kayathar toll plaza for a bio break and driver change happened here, the bus was at good speed we were overtaking many buses I slept down, Lakshman messaged me his bus was delayed and reached 11.30 pm, he must have waited there killing time for meeting me.
 
 We crossed Sattur toll plaza by 11.15pm and Viralimalai by 1.30pm, afterwards good sleep chengal pet was reached 5.20 and tambaram good traffic even at the morning 5.50 am, reached home 6 am stopped in front of the house as usual, waved to the driver and reached home.
Total travel time 7.50 Pm dep 6 Am arrival at Chromepet, 10 hours.