With the mercury touching 35 degrees Celsius, commuters alighting from the buses at Perungalathur terminus are feeling the heat due to lack of bus shelters. For women commuters, the problem is even worse: they don’t have a public convenience.
V.M. Kesavan, a resident of New Perungalathur, said neither the Peerkankaranai Town Panchayat nor the State Transport Corporation cared for the needs of commuters.
“We are yet to experience the peak of summer. Yet many commuters are feeling the heat, having to wait at bus stops without roofs,” he said. Having shifted the bus terminus from Tambaram to Perungalathur in July 2010, the Transport Department has left the long-distance travellers in the lurch, he pointed out.
Those waiting to board out-station buses here are a bit lucky to have a shelter with a roof. “It provides relief from the sun, but more is needed,” says S. Krishnaveni from Peerkankaranai. She suggested that a temporary bus shelter with a pair of bio-toilet facility would be of great help to the commuters.
Shift terminus: Residents
If lack of shelter posed one kind of trouble at the bus terminus, its presence on GST Road towards Tambaram near traffic signal was another problem. Apart from being an obstacle in widening of the road, it led to more traffic jams. At nights, it has become the den of anti-socials and unauthorised bar, according to residents who demanded that the bus shelter be removed and road widened.
Officials said the town panchayats adjacent to the place were smaller in size and so faced severe financial crunch indicating that the bus shelters may not have roofs anytime soon. The officials, however, promised to put up a pair of bio-toilets.