In an ever expanding city, connectivity has always been an issue for many living in interior roads and localities beyond the Corporation limits.
Though the Metropolitan Transportation Corporation has been constantly increasing its fleet and services to areas, commuters still have plenty of room to complain. Many areas have seen services being withdrawn suddenly.
Areas including Ennore, Kolathur, Tiruvottiyur, Adambakkam, parts of Velachery, Nanganallur and Pallikaranai do not have enough services.
M. Lakshmi, who works in the house keeping department in an IT firm on Pallavaram-Thoraipakkam radial road, says she is forced to take a lift to Thoraipakkam every day as there are no buses on the route. “This is road was recently laid. Lighting is also not sufficient in some stretches. But the worst part is that there are no buses. We are forced to depend on share autorickshaws or on colleagues who have vehicles. Some girls in my company take lifts from taxis,” she said.
Nanganallur is an area that has very minimal bus connectivity. R. Sampathkumar, a resident of Thillai Ganga Nagar, said routes including M52L (High Court), M18C (T. Nagar), M70N (Koyambedu) provided some sort of connectivity to residents commute to the city. Introduction of mini services between Pazhavanthangal and St. Thomas Mount railway stations would be a viable solution to stop the fleecing by autoriskaw drivers.
“Some years ago, we did have buses to Tambaram, Ambattur, Poonamallee and T. Nagar but they were withdrawn on the premise of lack of adequate patronage. We need buses to areas such as Velachery, Adyar, Pallavaram, K.K.Nagar, Porur and Poonamallee,” he said.
Though the northern municipality of Ennore has buses from Thiruvanmiyur and Manali, it still lacks vehicles for internal transportation. People still depend on tempos to commute to neighbouring villages.
T.E. Harikrishnan, of Raghava Avenue, Adambakkam, said that their area did not have any dependable bus service other than 51P (to High Court). We have buses from the High Court, Ambattur and Guduvanchery via Tambaram, which is hardly enough. Many government servants and IT company employees need connection to Velachery and Guindy via Puzhidhivakkam and Adambakkam.
While this is the state in suburbs, even areas inside the city have similar problems. Kasturirangan, of Choolaimedu said his area was sandwiched between Arcot Road and Nelson Manickam Road and people were forced to depend on private vehicles or autorickshaws to reach either Kodambakkam or Nungambakkam railway stations.
“We did have circular routes connecting Vadapalani bus terminus and Koyambedu connecting Periyar Paadhai, Gill Nagar, Choolaimedu High Road and Nelson Manickam Road.” These services were withdrawn over the period of time owing to shortage of road width on these roads. Chennai Corporation, Transport department and Traffic Police should think of reviving bus services for the benefit of at least 30,000 residents, he said.
