Road-Rail Transport
water transport of the State. Consequently, tlie Main
Southern road, where traffic was heaviest, was chosen as
the first route to be operated under direct Government
aegis.
Prior to 1113, when the State of Travancore monopolised
the road-passenger transport system on the Main Southern
route, there was a plurality of bus concerns competing
with each other at uneconomic rates so that many bus
concerns operated on the same route. During the two
years preceding the introduction of the Government
scheme, there were in Trivandrum and part of Quilon
District fifty-two routes on which 155 buses plied, thus
making an average of 3 buses per route. But all routes
did not have the same amount of traffic- The most heavily
worked lines were Nagercoil-Aramboly-Tinnevelly line on
which there were 28 buses. On this particular route, there
were three large concerns that operated it: the Pioneer
Motor Service with nine buses, the Saraswathi Motor Ser-
vice with six buses and the Hameedia Motor Service with
five. Of the other heavy lines, the Nagercoil-Aramboly-
Papanasam route was one, where nine buses operated, five
of which belonged to the Pioneer Motor Service and four
to the Champion Automobiles of Kalakad. The Vadasery
Market Junction to Azngiapandiapuram section had five
buses of the Pioneer Service. This route was selected
by the Transport Department for monopolisation from
16-1-1114. "Writing about the taking up of this route, the
Commissioner of Police made the following observations:
{f As the period of the G. Permits expires in the case of
two buses in about 3 months7 time and of the remaining
'.about 4 months' time thereafter, the question of
the State Transport Service on the line may
* dipped till then.7' The Commissioner of Police &as
fraetioiis not to issue any more permits to operate ab
above line,
m