The Nallur Consumers Welfare Association (NCWA) has called upon the State Government to introduce Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation-operated ‘mini bus’ services in Tirupur city and its immediate suburbs for improving transport facilities in interior areas.
In a petition forwarded to the Chief Minister, the NCWA president N. Shanmugasundaram said that though mini buses were now run by private service providers, the people were not fully satisfied with their operations and hence, there was a need for bus services by TNSTC as in the case of Chennai.
“Many of the mini buses are presently running only in routes already covered by the existing fleet of TNSTC’s regular buses with the private operators showing hesitancy in taking the vehicles to the designated interior locations.
“They come till the main road in various places and return without entering the narrow roads if they found the respective areas or timings are economically non-viable,” he said.
The forum, in the representation, had highlighted the routes in which the TNSTC’s mini bus services could be introduced.
“Considering the pleas aired by the labour workforce in Tirupur knitwear cluster for better connectivity over the past many months, such services can be operated from Tirupur Old Bus Stand to areas like K. Chettiapalayam, Thirumurugan Nagar, Palavanchipalayam, Rayapuram, Angeripalayam, Kumarappapuram and Thiruneelakantapuram,” Mr. Shanmugasundaram said.
He was of the opinion that the State-owned mini bus services should also be operated in the same sanctioned- routes given to the private mini buses.
