Quote:
Originally Posted by binaiks It is a new service - launched less than a month ago. So haven't heard of any reviews till date. But, please take that 8.30AM arrival with lots of salt - since there are chances for the bus to get delayed further, since it would encounter morning peak time traffic as it enters Kerala.
Reliability wise- Kallada is fairly good. They do have incidences of breakdowns recently, but I would still rate them a good operator. This being a new service, you could expect to get of their new buses. |
KALLADA CHENNAI-PALAKKAD REVIEW
I was travelling to Kerala from Assam on a months vacation. Had booked a new service of Kallada, 10 pm Non Stop to EKM till Thrissur on 18th Oct night thru Redbus. The ticket cost me Rs 1200
As Luck would be, got a call from Kallada on 17th evening at 6 pm that the 10 pm bus has been cancelled and I have been readjusted in the 8 pm Kayamkulam bus. I politely informed them that my flight from Kolkatta will land at 815 pm only and no way i can take the earlier bus. The guy on the other side had no answer & he hung up. He didn't attend a single call of mine after that. Since i had booked thru Redbus, i called their customer care and then my ordeal started. The guys in redbus told me that Kallada is still showing the 10pm bus and he cant cancel my ticket for full refund. Kallada wouldn't respond. After lots of fights on phone and mails, Kallada agreed to Redbus to refund.
In the meanwhile I booked the Kallada Kozhikode bus starting at 9pm with a boarding at Perunkalathur at 945pm as I had to reach Kottayam at any cost for a Máge after picking up my wife from Thrissur. I landed at Chennai airport at 845pm, took a taxi and rushed to P'thur. On reaching at 930pm i saw a Kallada ready to depart which was their Kayamkulam service(8pm bus in which they were accomodating me). It was drizzling and we went to their office to wait for the bus. Finally KL-45 D 1800 rolled in at 1045pm as against their 945 pm dep from P'thur. Seatswere full with 3 pax boarding at SRM univ. I settled in A3 seat and slept off as I was tired. At about 12 am, there was a sudden braking and I woke up. A trailer with a container had slipped off the road with the load jutting on to the highway & we were the 1st vehicle behind it. The Driver had braked hard to avoid hitting it. It was raining heavily. Just as we stopped, heard a THUD sound. I got down alongwith the Driver and it was a scene. An Indica had hit the Left rear of our Bus and a bus (SHERIN) had hit the right rear. The Bus and car had their Lt & Rt headlights broken respectively. BUT our monster suffered only a Bent rear bumper which as per the Driver was minor & we drove off. The Sherin bus driver was apologetic, he said "i tried braking hard but couldn't manage".
I slept again and woke up around 230am. the Bus was moving at a slow pace(50-60kmph). i opened the curtain to see what was happening and the driver was constantly rubbing his eyes to avoid sleeping. I got off from the seat, went and sat in the co-drivers seat, told him lets take a break, have a cup of tea, a bio leak and then start. He readily agreed and we stopped short of Chinna Salem. i asked him where's the 2nd driver, he said I'm the only driver and there's no cleaner too. That gave me a and even more when he said that it has been 18 days of continuous single driving on Chen-Kym-Chen-Kollam-Blr-Tvm etc. I lost all my sleep and decided to give the driver company. He was from my dist, Malappuram. We chatted a lot about how he got into Kallada, his training with Volvo, his only accident when he banged a B7R against a static lorry etc. At around 4am, just short of perundhurai, he started feeling sleepy terribly. i asked him to stop if he was very uneasy. He continued till Perundhurai where we had a Diesel fill, a cup of tea and a nice wash of the windscreen. We continued and reached Cbe at 720am and finally my destination Palakkad at 845am. There were 17 pax to get down there as they were all booked for the 10pm(cancelled) bus and had to travel to EKM in other means. I took a KeSRTC SFP till Thrissur in which i slept.
My opinion
1. The bus was a 2yr old one, its odometer display wasn't working. The drive was comfy with normal noise. Blanket and water was provided, but no cleaner to distribute it.
2. Late start out of Chennai is Bad, which kept getting delayed due to various reasons.
3. Very Poor management and utter disregard to safety of PAX by Kallada. Single Dvr for a 750km+ journey. one day or 2 is accepted BUT 18 days on the trot is shocking. The driver was like a Zombie as he hardly had any rest. He would have reached Kozhikode at 1230 pm that day and had to start for Chennai at 5pm same evening, ALL ALONE.
4. If this is the condition of Kallada(suresh group) in Future too, then i would think twice before taking it. The Buses are getting good patronage. All the ones which passed infront of me, Kayamkulam, Kollam were all full.