In the coming months, one can expect an improvement in maintenance of buses plying across the city. Metropolitan Transport Corporation Limited (MTC) will get 16 bus depots in various parts of the city including a few in the suburbs in the next six months.
The additional depots will enable better maintenance as there will be more space to park buses. “Each depot has a different capacity. For example, now over 200 buses are parked in a depot which can handle 100 buses. Due to this many vehicles are left on the road or in a terminus nearby. Besides, the workers cannot regularly maintain so many buses,” said a senior transport official.
This will help the officials check the condition of the buses and pay attention to even minor faults. “Now, even cleaning the buses is sometimes impossible as there are too many,” said the official. Despite an increase in the MTC’s fleet strength over the years, there has been no increase in the number of depots for the past ten years.
Some of the new depots will be in Thiruverkadu, Kannagi Nagar, Besant Nagar and MKB Nagar, Gummidipoondi, Chrompet and on the Old Mahabalipuram Road. “It was a bit difficult to get space for the depots, but we managed. In six months, they will all be in place,” said the official.
In addition to those in the city, 46 depots will be opened across the State. “This will be done before the next budget session. There are no depots in 26 constituencies. The State Express Transport Corporation is short of 16 depots. So there will be an improvement in maintenance across the State in the coming months,” said the official.
