The strike call given by trade unions affiliated to opposition political parties led to severe hardship for lakhs of commuters who depend on bus transport in the city.
Of the nearly 4,000 buses in the Metropolitan Transport Corporation fleet, only 10% to 15% were operated on Friday to the frustration of nearly five million people who use the bus services.
Following the flash strike by several trade unions on Thursday evening after the wage talks failed, Transport Minister M. R. Vijayabaskar promised that 90% of the buses would be operated. It was not reflected on the ground. People had to wait for several hours along different routes to catch the bus to office or back home.
Some of the most important bus termini that serve as nerve centres in the city including the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus (CMBT), and those in Guindy, Velachery, Thiruvanmiyur, Tiruvottiyur, Broadway, and Porur, saw very few buses being operated. The CMBT which acts as the transfer point for commuters to change to different buses and would be congested with MTC buses had a sparse commuter crowd.
R. Sivasubramanian, a resident of Mogappair, had to wait for two hours to get a bus to reach his office in Taramani. He said normally a large number of services would be operated from Ambattur Industrial Estate to Taramani via Velachery, but on Friday morning it was quite hard to find any buses.
A trade union member affiliated to CITU said that more than 90% of the buses could not be operated because of want of drivers and conductors. The MTC on an average operates 3,400 buses comprising 743 routes from eight depots. The outstation buses at CMBT were also not plying and a few private operators were allowed to ply the buses. Travellers had to wait for long hours or postpone their trips and find a way back home.
Even as commuters, particularly office-goers, were forced to find their own modes of transport, the Southern Railway operated special trains on Thursday. Based on the situation, it would be operating additional services on the Chennai Beach - Tambaram section over the weekend also.
A senior official of the Southern Railway said there was a jump of 30% in passenger traffic in all the four suburban sections, including the MRTS. Patronage in Metro Rail went up to 32,750 passengers on Friday as against the normal of 22,000-25,000.
