With searing heat gripping the city, commuters who travel by buses are suffering as many bus stops in the city lack shelter and seating.
After Chennai Metro Rail’s Phase II work expanded to different parts of the city, traffic diversions were implemented to facilitate the work. As a result, bus stops were moved to new locations, and at quite a few of these new spots, shelter and seating have not been provided.
V.S. Jayaraman, a 65-year-old resident of T. Nagar, said that last week, he found it exhausting to wait for a bus in the scorching heat at Vadapalani. “I faced this issue in Kodambakkam as well. How long can senior citizens like me wait for a bus in the sweltering heat? When they are spending in crores and constructing a public transport, shouldn’t they provide shelters to bus stops that had to be relocated for this work?” he said.
Another commuter, Aravind Parthasarathy, 30, of Mylapore said people were clueless where the bus stop was without the shelters and signage was needed to inform people about the location of the nearest bus stop.
“I usually travel from Mylapore to Tambaram and Guindy by bus. But it has been very difficult to wait for a bus in the heat without shelters. As a result, I have stopped taking the bus since the construction work started in Mylapore. I end up spending on autorickshaws now, and this has caused a lot of inconvenience,” he added.
Vidyasagar Jagadeesan, a civic activist, said when the authorities planned traffic diversions and bus stop relocations, they also had to consider the commuters’ convenience and make arrangements for necessary amenities such as shelters and signage. “They should not have waited this long and make the commuters suffer,” he added.
Temporary shelters
According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), they have taken cognisance of the issue and have already provided temporary shelters like marquees (shamiana) in nine locations. “This is a temporary measure. Work is under way to build permanent shelters. The fabrication work is on, and it will be installed in all the areas where we have relocated bus stops within two weeks,” an official said.
Sources said in some of the locations, either the residents or shop owners were not permitting CMRL to build bus shelters, and the agency was in talks with them to resolve the problems.
