After irate commuters complained of being forced to wait under the hot sun without bus shelters, Chennai Metro Rail has finally begun putting them up in some of the locations in the city.
For the ₹61,843 crore phase II project, Chennai Metro Rail brought in traffic diversions in several areas across the city to construct elevated stations, viaduct, underground stations and tunnels. As a result, the bus stops were moved to different locations as a temporary arrangement till the construction is complete, but many of these bus stops didn’t have any seating area or shelters, leaving commuters high and dry.
As a stop gap arrangement, they have placed temporary sheeting instead of bus shelters in some locations. But this will soon be replaced by permanent shelters.
According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), they have commenced work to install bus shelters with seating area. In two locations, at Mylapore and Luz, they have already placed them and in the other locations too, this facility will be made available soon.
“These will be brought in and fixed as soon as possible. Within 15 days, all the locations will have these permanent fixtures,” an official said. They have identified nearly 30 locations in various areas where new permanent steel shelters with seating space will be set up, officials said.
Baskar Seshadri, a social activist and a resident of Mandaveli said, he is glad that finally commuters, particularly senior citizens, in Mylapore have access to comfortable bus stations. “After the bus stops were removed, senior citizens were standing under the searing heat in bus stops. Commuters like me stood with placards and also requested CMRL to resolve the issue. While it has taken them long to do it, we are happy that it is finally available in a few locations. This should be done in all the other areas too,” he added.
