The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : MTC does not like to lag behind city pulse

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Monday, Nov 10, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

MTC does not like to lag behind city pulse

Vidya Venkat

Commuters from southern suburbs pleased with new services

Photo: K. Pichumani

ADVANTAGE MTC: An over crowded bus near Padi junction. —

CHENNAI: After sensing or seeing a potent competitor in the MRTS whose popularity graph, of late, is rising, the Metropolitan Transport Corporation has expanded its fleet strength to over 3,000 and improved its bus services to a large extent.

A traffic planning official at the MTC said that Velachery, Guindy, Sholinganallur, Padappai, Oragadam, Poonamallee, Pallavaram, Thirumudivakkam, Kunrathur and Avadi had been identified as potential zones for developing more bus services.

The transport corporation studied the demand in various areas and wherever there was potential for revenue generation, services would be started.

Commuters from the southern suburbs appear to be pleased with the new services.

K. Murugan, a resident of Oorapakkam, said that the new bus service to Chengalpattu was useful to him. A regular commuter, he said that long-distance direct bus services helped him cut costs and save time.

However, residents in the western suburbs of the city felt that things could be better. Roy Rosario, a resident of Pattabiram, said that owing to the ongoing construction of the Padi flyover, buses had to take diversion, which increased travel time.

“The only bus service to the High Court is 71 E, which is overcrowded. Now, more people are switching over to suburban train services as they find the bus services unreliable,” he said.

A lot of residents in areas such as Pattabiram, Padi and Thiruninravur went to Avadi as the bus services there were better. Also with the bus terminus located away from the railway station, it was not easy to switch from one mode of transport to the other, he said.

As regards north Chennai, T. Rajkumar, a resident of Selavoyal, Kodungaiyur, said that the bus services to Korukkupet and Kodungaiyur had scope for improvement. Thousands of students studying in Thiruthangal Nadar College were depending on public transport and would benefit if more buses are introduced here.

North Chennai residents are also upset that no airconditioned bus services had been introduced here. However, the MTC officials pointed out at the need for economic viability of running such services.

According to a senior official, the existing AC services were not fetching the desired revenue as the rains had played spoilsport. The MTC was likely to augment AC services in the summer for better patronage, he said.

Also experts in the field of transport felt that integrating different modes of transport should be the way forward. The Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority set up recently offers some hope in this area. However, sources said that work in this area was still in the planning stage.

Priyamvada Vishwanathan, Transport Planning Manager of Southern Railways, said that the ideal situation would be to have a seamless transport system, where people could travel from one point to another by bus and then easily switch over to trains, if need be. “The transport system should be planned in such a way that people should not be forced to depend on two-wheelers or autorickshaws for connection. Buses should at best be feeder services,” she said.

Giving a boost to the public transport system was the best bet to bringing down pollution levels and, in general, making life easier for those living in the city.

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