Ads removed from 500 illegal bus shelters in Chennai

Civic body will also strengthen weak ones among the structures, temporarily

Plans afoot: The civic body has decided to construct over 2,000 new uniformly-designed bus shelters in the next year. View of new bus shelter at Simphson bus stop, Anna Salai in Chennai on Decembar 15, 2014. Photo: M. Karunakaran

The civic body has removed advertisements from 500 bus shelters constructed by private agencies across the city.

These structures were set up by private entities on the basis of fraudulent agreements with the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC). Only the Chennai Corporation is authorised to build and maintain bus shelters in the city.

As a number of the illegal shelters were also found to be unsafe, the Chennai Corporation has planned to strengthen them.

A team comprising representatives from the Chennai Corporation, the traffic police and Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) has been formed to make a decision on restoring weak bus shelters on a temporary basis before a modernisation drive.

Commuters and residents have also raised safety concerns over poor illumination at several bus stops.

SC order

Corporation zonal officials removed the advertisements from bus shelters following an order of the Supreme Court in December.

These shelters were being managed by private entities M/s. White Horse Communication, M/s. Aim Associates Ltd., M/s. S.S. International, M/s. Front Line Media, M/s. Graphite Publicities and M/s. Vaishnavi Images, on agreement with MTC.

Efforts are under way to commission uniformly-designed shelters at 2,000 bus stops in the city.