Route diversions create chaos: commuters

For a couple of weeks, commuters boarding route numbers 95 (Tambaram East – Thiruvanmiyur) and 99 (Adyar – West Tambaram) were having arguments with conductors over the diversion of routes.

The diversion came in the wake of the recent flooding, caused by the incessant rains, on Sholinganallur – Medavakkam Main Road.

Prior to the flooding, the route numbers, from East and West Tambaram bus terminuses, used to ply through Velachery Main Road, Sholinganallur-Medavakkam Main Road, Rajiv Gandhi Salai and East Coast Road to reach Thiruvanmiyur and Adyar.

But after the diversion, confusion prevailed over the stopping of the buses at Medavakkam bus stop and Medavakkam Koot Road bus stop. Many commuters were not aware of the diversions, and when the buses would take a left on Medavakkam Main Road, they would protest. “We are forced to board another bus 5A, 51 or share-autos to reach Medavakkam, thereby suffering a lot of inconvenience,” commuters said.

A list of stops, printed on a sheet of paper, were pasted on the rear glasspanes of the vehicles for the benefit of commuters.

MTC conductors, while admitting that chaos prevailed due to diversion, said they stopped the vehicle as soon as when commuters demanded us to. Also, we constantly reminded them of the route diversion and the routes to be taken,” they pointed out.