New bus shelters in added areas soon

Study of existing bus route infrastructure will also be conducted

March 29, 2013 02:00 am | Updated 02:00 am IST - CHENNAI:

Bus stops in newly added areas are likely to get new bus shelters.

Initiatives to this effect were recommended by the subcommittee on infrastructure improvement and promotion of non-motorised transport of the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) at its third meeting on Thursday.

A study of all lacunae in the existing bus route infrastructure such as bus shelters will be done by Chennai Corporation with the support of MTC. The meeting was chaired by the Corporation Commissioner.

The civic body is likely to overcome the existing “legal challenges in finalising tenders” this summer and work on bus shelters is likely to be completed in many of the bus stops by monsoon.

There are more than 2,000 bus stops served by the MTC, but around 1,000 bus stops do not have adequate shelters. The lacunae are mainly because of the challenges pertaining to authorisation of the bus shelters by the land-owning agencies of bus routes. Most of the bus route roads are owned and maintained by the Chennai Corporation and the bus shelters too have formally been handed over by the MTC. Yet only around 1,150 bus shelters are found to be under the control of the Corporation across the 15 zones.

A chunk of the bus shelters are under litigation. The proposal to commission 642 modern bus shelters made last year too has been stalled because of legal hurdles and inadequate response from contractors.

The Corporation had earlier authorised Laqshya Media to install modern bus shelters at 99 locations of which the company has completed work on 72. The company has put up the facilities on a BOT basis for a period of 10 years. It would pay the civic body a little over Rs. 2 crore every year. Chennai Corporation sources said work on 27 bus shelters could not be commissioned because of traffic diversions for metrorail work in the city.

The sub committee on Thursday also stressed the need for “green signal” from Traffic Police to implement pedestrian plaza around Omandurar Estate and Mylapore Tank.

The declaration of pedestrian plaza will also require traffic changes and new locations for many bus stops.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.