By R Lester Makang
UKHRUL, December 24: Amidst the frantic rush for homeward journey on the eve of the much awaited Christmas, hundreds of Ukhrul bound commuters found themselves at the receiving end of a series of misfortunes along the Imphal-Ukhrul road today.
To start with, tickets of all the buses plying along the Imphal-Ukhrul route got sold out early in the day as many people were rushing to get home today. Thus, many people who could not manage to get themselves a bus ticket had to face the fate of being stranded at Imphal rather than celebrating the festival at their respective home.
According to ticket selling counters at Imphal, tickets were sold quickly and even tickets of buses scheduled for 2 pm had run out well before noon.
On the other hand, people could not get hold of Winger taxis plying along the same route as the tickets had been snatched away by volunteers of All Manipur Students Union (AMSU) over certain issues between the students’ body and the Wingers service association. A crowd of homeward bound travelers soon gathered around the tiny open taxi ticket counter at Khuman Lampak in Imphal.
Following repeated appeals from the public not to give trouble to commuters in view of the festival beginning tomorrow, taxis were finally let off, sources said.
Meanwhile, many bus passengers who were hoping to make it at the welcome service of Christmas this evening, had a hard luck as they had to be stranded for hours on end at Nungshang Kong area along the Imphal-Ukhrul road since a loaded Shaktiman truck got off one of its wheels and stuck in the middle of the road restricting movement of heavy vehicles such as bus.
At the same time, another Imphal bound bus got its tyre punctured along the same route today evening thereby leaving hordes of passengers stranded there.
In yet another incident, a car heading towards Imphal had a head on collision with a Bolero jeep along the same road this evening but no casualty has been reported.
In fact, a series of bizarre incidents marked the eve of Christmas for many Ukhrulites today.
