Land identification for new bus depots completed

More such depots to come to house hundreds of buses that are parked outside the existing depots due to shortage of space.— File Photo: M. Periasamy

The Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) officials of Coimbatore Division have completed land identification exercise for establishing new bus depots in the district. The last land identification efforts for a depot at Madukkarai was completed in the fourth week of May by taking possession of the three-acre land that was encroached upon by a cement company.

There are 16 bus depots in the district including 10 in the city. These bus depots are inadequate to house the 1,181 buses – 794 town and 387 mofussil buses – attached to the district. Officials said that the new bus depots would provide enough space for housing buses that were parked alongside the road at places such as Sungam Junction.

Senior TNSTC officials said that in the 2013-14 budget, the former Chief Minister announced establishment of six new bus depots in the district (Annur, Ondipudur-III, Kinathukadavu, Madukkarai, Sulur and Perur) to decongest the city traffic by taking away close to 500 buses from the city.

The depot at Annur was completed and came to use four months ago. Work for the third depot at Ondipudur had been completed. Land levelling work was under way for the Sulur depot. Land for establishing bus depots at Perur and Kinathukadavu was completed long ago. But, there was difficulty in identifying land for the depot at Madukkarai.

An official said that the 3-acre land was from a total of 30 acres encroached upon by a private cement factory based at Madukkarai. Sources said that the Government leased the 30 acre to the cement manufacturer for a period of 70 years. It is learnt that the agreement came to an end about a year ago – but it was still used by the company.

The Revenue Department allotted the three acres to the TNSTC to establish its depot and the transport corporation took procession of the land on Wednesday.

Depots to be established at the city’s periphery will also help TNSTC save a lot on fuel. A senior official said that buses parked at the depots in the city had to go all the way to the periphery without many commuters to begin the day in the first trip.

These new depots would begin operation from that locality, and facilitate operation of new bus routes in those areas.