The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation in Odisha has announced an odd-even scheme for public transport including buses, taxis, and auto-rickshaws to restrict traffic during the coronavirus outbreak.
But there will be no bar on private vehicles, government vehicles and vehicles hired by hospitals. This is, however, not the first implementation in light of the spike of COVID-19 cases in India. Ahead of this, authorities in Jammu took a slew of steps to prevent the spread of coronavirus, including a shutdown of all modes of mass public transport in Jammu district till further orders, except SRTC buses.
The SRTC buses will ply only on the designated routes for the convenience of government employees as well as those travelling in an emergency.
"Other modes of transport such as autorickshaws or taxis with not more than three passengers onboard are also permitted to ply," a government order read.
"Only medical shops, grocery, and stationery shops will open," Jammu Divisional Commissioner Sanjeev Verma told IANS.
He said other steps include fumigation of buses and suspension of inter-state bus services.
Punjab too, in a preventive step to counter the growing coronavirus outbreak in the region, decided to discontinue public transport buses in the state from Saturday midnight.
Accordingly, buses, auto-rickshaws and tempos will not be allowed to ply in the state from the midnight of Saturday.
The decision was taken by a group of ministers who met here on Thursday to review the state's preparedness to counter the coronavirus pandemic. It also decided to limit public gatherings to 20 people.
The state has reported two positive coronavirus cases so far. One person, with travel history to Germany and Italy, had died on Wednesday and test reports on Thursday confirmed that the deceased was infected by the dreaded virus.
The other positive case has been admitted to a hospital in Amritsar.
The state's capital, Chandigarh, also reported its first positive case late on Wednesday night.
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