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Lessons from heavy rains
- By Raghav Ramful
- Published 23rd May, 2008
- Society
- Unrated
And surprisingly, it was not the first time that we are witnessing heavy rains. The scenario was quite a bleak one when students and civil servants were left stranded in winding long queues at the two major bus stations in the capital and other bus stands over the island. Officers of the National Transport Authority (NTA) were taken by surprise by the complexity of the situation and the chain reaction that ensued was self revealing. The situation on the roads further worsened as schools and colleges closed their gates earlier than usual to allow students to reach their homes.
And with civil servants joining in the fray moments later, there was a huge strain to provide transport for this unexpected crowd. “The public transport sector faced serious difficulties as decisions were taken in haste to cope with the bad weather situation,” says an officer of the NTA. According to him, there was a serious gap in communication between the Ministry of Education and the NTA. “We received a communiqué from the Ministry at 1pm while the decision to close schools was taken at 12.15pm,” he adds. Therefore the coordination works that ensued to take necessary action were delayed and confusion set in immediately after. The timing for the departure of buses from the two major bus terminals of the capital had to be rescheduled and that worsened the already existing traffic jam in the capital.
“Bus operators and the NTA did not
have enough time to organise transport for the students and the time at which decisions were taken, which was around lunch time, was not appropriate as many drivers and conductors were on lunch break. Some 450 buses are allocated to the transport of students from their respective schools on a daily basis.
On the other hand, the NTA and the police registered a few complaints from the public concerning buses that went straight to the garage after their trip from the capital. “These buses did not return to the capital for other trips which disrupted the smooth flow of operations. We were not in the middle of any cyclone warnings where buses were asked to be grounded,” says a station master. According to him, there was a wave of panic that hovered over the heads of the public as they thought of a remake of March 26, an unfortunate day for Mauritius as an unexpected flood hit the country. “With everybody rushing towards the bus stations to reach home safely ‘before being caught up by the rains’, there was an unusual concentration of people at the stations. Unfortunately we did not have buses on stand-by for them. Had we been informed in advance, we could have mobilised our resources and done the needful,” he adds. The station master says that this situation has served many people in the transport sector a lesson for the future. “We need to be on our guard and be ready to cope with unexpected situations like those of last week. The existing system of communication between concerned stakeholders has to be improved,” he explains.
And with civil servants joining in the fray moments later, there was a huge strain to provide transport for this unexpected crowd. “The public transport sector faced serious difficulties as decisions were taken in haste to cope with the bad weather situation,” says an officer of the NTA. According to him, there was a serious gap in communication between the Ministry of Education and the NTA. “We received a communiqué from the Ministry at 1pm while the decision to close schools was taken at 12.15pm,” he adds. Therefore the coordination works that ensued to take necessary action were delayed and confusion set in immediately after. The timing for the departure of buses from the two major bus terminals of the capital had to be rescheduled and that worsened the already existing traffic jam in the capital.
“Bus operators and the NTA did not
On the other hand, the NTA and the police registered a few complaints from the public concerning buses that went straight to the garage after their trip from the capital. “These buses did not return to the capital for other trips which disrupted the smooth flow of operations. We were not in the middle of any cyclone warnings where buses were asked to be grounded,” says a station master. According to him, there was a wave of panic that hovered over the heads of the public as they thought of a remake of March 26, an unfortunate day for Mauritius as an unexpected flood hit the country. “With everybody rushing towards the bus stations to reach home safely ‘before being caught up by the rains’, there was an unusual concentration of people at the stations. Unfortunately we did not have buses on stand-by for them. Had we been informed in advance, we could have mobilised our resources and done the needful,” he adds. The station master says that this situation has served many people in the transport sector a lesson for the future. “We need to be on our guard and be ready to cope with unexpected situations like those of last week. The existing system of communication between concerned stakeholders has to be improved,” he explains.
