The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) recently announced that it is considering setting up ‘transit hubs' equipped with ‘park-and-ride' facilities in three of its 25 depots in the city. While such plans have been around for the last 15 years, this is the first real step towards addressing the woeful lack of infrastructure facilities in many of MTC's transit terminals.
The transport corporation has not built a major bus terminus since the mid-1980s. Many of its 32 terminals, facilities usually located next to a depot and used for passenger boarding and alighting, get flooded during the monsoon. The reason: development around the terminals has been so rapid that most of them are two-and-a-half metres below ground level.
Simply put, the city has outgrown MTC's facilities and a rapid augmentation of both the services and associated infrastructure is required to encourage public transport usage, say experts. For instance, the Thiruvanmiyur depot, which is one of the three locations identified to be developed into a transit hub, was originally designed to house only 50 buses. It currently maintains and operates 138 buses.
Basic passenger amenities such as restrooms and waiting areas are also absent in most of the terminals.
V. Gopalakrishnan, a resident of K. K. Nagar, says that the absence of a public announcement system providing information on the arrival and departure of the buses is a major problem. “It will be helpful if all buses are GPS-enabled and an information display area with adequate seating space is built inside the terminals. Currently, due to a lack of seating arrangements, people have to either stand or sit on the platforms.”
Major transportations hubs such as Tambaram do not even have a proper terminus. In both east and west Tambaram, buses continue to be parked on the road margins. Efforts over the years to acquire land, especially from the Ministry of Defence, to create a terminus have failed.
S.Venkatesan, who regularly commutes by bus from Mogappair to Nungambakkam, said that MTC must take measures to prevent rainwater stagnation in the Vadapalani, Anna Nagar, T.Nagar and Thiruvanmiyur terminuses. About two years ago, parking facility was being provided by private agencies near the Anna Nagar terminus. It has been replaced by a petrol bunk now.
He said the ‘park-and-ride' facilities, similar to those being provided in railway stations, would help commuters travelling from interior areas.
G. S. Ravi, who travels from Ambattur to Parrys' Corner, said public transport connectivity must be strengthened in areas that have railway stations nearby. Though a number of bus terminuses are only half a km away from the suburban railway stations in the northern and western sections, passengers shell out Rs.30-40 to autorickshaws to cover the distance.
S.A.Vijayakumar, former head of various State-run bus corporations, says that the basic problem is that the MTC has expanded its bus fleet without seriously looking at infrastructure facilities such as parking space and passenger amenities at its depots. “In many depots such as Basin Bridge, Thiruvanmiyur, Adyar and Madaveli, buses are already parked on the road. The CMDA has suggested that the city would require about 8,000 buses by 2026. Where are they going to park them?” he asks.
According to him, a strategy similar to the one adopted for installing bus shelters across the city must be used for upgrading bus terminuses. “Bus shelters have started generating revenue. Any transport project can be self-financing if the right mechanisms are adopted,” Mr. Vijakumar adds.
There is a reason behind the insistence on the importance of investing in the city's bus transit infrastructure at this juncture. Though New Delhi has a world-class Metro system, it only caters to six per cent of daily trips undertaken in the national capital. Studies show that a bus network will have much wider coverage and will be accessible to a wider section of a city's population than any other public transit solution.
As the city expands, a greater section of people will start using multiple modes of transport for a single journey and buses will start acting as connecting services to long-distance rail transit.
Raj Cherubal, coordinator of Chennai City Connect, an NGO working on traffic and transportation issues, says that commercial exploitation of MTC terminuses can not only finance the development of multi-modal hubs, but the revenue generated will also subsidise public transport. “Passenger will benefit due to low ticket price and MTC will not turn around and complain about operational loss. For example, the Hongkong Metro gets only 28 per cent of its revenue from ticket sales,” he adds.
Transport Secretary Rameshram Mishra said that vast tracts of land remain “under-utilised” and a detailed plan would be evolved to improve passenger amenities. “We will soon identify a private partner to develop facilities such as public toilets, dedicated zones to purchase passes, and a separate waiting are for women.”
(With inputs from Ajai Sreevatsan, K.Lakshmi and K.Manikandan)
What they say:
V. Thamizh Arasan, Head of Transportation Engineering Division, IIT-Madras: Since public transit cannot provide for door-to-door travel like personal vehicles, it is important that transit centres are made easily accessible. MTC must identify nodal points that receive the highest passenger volumes and provide ‘park and ride' facilities in those locations. Generally, provision of these facilities at major transit stations in the peripheral areas of cities will serve the purpose more effectively. Localities such as Tambaram and Gummidipoondi are areas where there is a very high demand for parking space for two-wheelers and bicycles.
R.Latha, a commuter from Mogappair : I wait for about half an hour to board a bus from Mogappair East terminus. The number of commuters from the neighbouring localities has gone up, but the terminus remains in poor condition and gets inundated during rains. Many bus terminuses like this one lack provision of seats. As the terminus in Mogappair East is located away from the main road, commuters either walk or shell out Rs.30 for autorickshaws. The authorities concerned must improve the amenities in the bus terminuses and also arrange for public announcement system for arrival and departure of buses.
