The Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) plans to construct new bus depots and renovate old ones in the city to accommodate the expanding fleet of buses.
A senior official of the MTC said that as part of the bus depot improvement project, 12 depots were identified, of which five were recently renovated with a covered time office counter, sheltered bus bays and other facilities. The depots include Semmanchery, Chromepet, Kunrathur, MKB Nagar and Padianallur. In the remaining seven depots, including Kannagi Nagar, Perumbakkam, Perambur II and Velachery, the renovation is in various stages, he added.
While work on three new depots is in progress, land acquisition is on for the proposed facility in Thaiyur in Kancheepuram district. The project, proposed in 2011, planned to develop 25 depots as an end to problems caused by space constraints and also for effective management of vehicles.
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The MTC was bifurcated in September last and since then, bus depots were set up at Mahakavi Bharathiyar Nagar, Padiyanallur in north Chennai and Kundrathur, Semmanchery, and a second one at Chromepet in south. These depots had adequate manpower to attend to vehicles and each had a branch manager, the official pointed out.
The MTC had inaugurated newly renovated depots at Adambakkam and Besant Nagar, which acted as bus termini too.
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