With employees of TNSTC continuing their strike for the third day today, majority of the buses remained off the road in Coimbatore, Tirupur and Nilgiris districts, partially affecting normal life in the early hours.

Commuters had made alternative arrangements to reach the destinations by private buses and some government buses run by drivers and conductors of ruling party-affiliated unions.

In Tirupur and Nilgiris, the situation was no different and similar to a large extent in Salem too. In the tourist town of Udhagamandalam in Nilgiris, some workers were reportedly involved in deflating bus tyres to prevent others from taking buses out, police said.

In other incidents, the ignition wire of some buses were reportedly snapped so that the vehicles could not start.