Stormwater drains along Porur-Kundrathur Main Road were widened recently, and the work involving the drain in front of the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) terminus in Kovur, has caused a new problem.
The exercise does not seem to have factored in how MTC buses could enter the terminus if the drain is two feet higher than the floor of the terminus. A narrow portion has been left untouched to let buses roll in and out of the terminus. However, this section being narrow, drivers can’t negotiate it with ease. As a result, buses are lined up outside the terminus.
With bus drivers fighting shy of using it, the narrow passage has been blocked with wooden logs to prevent motorists from parking their vehicles, including cabs and autorickshaws, inside the terminus. As buses now halt on the road, commuters are put to great inconvenience.
“When it rains, we take shelter inside the terminus and when the bus arrives, we have to run to board the bus which halts on the road,” says K. Saroja, a resident of Kovur.
Commuters say that the work exposes the lack of coordination between the government departments including the State Highways Department and the Kancheepuram Collectorate.
In this regard, an official from the Kancheepuram Collectorate says, “The height of the floor in the terminus will be increased so that movement of the buses will not be affected.”
The drain which is now three feet wide and six feet deep is meant to discharge excess rainwater from the surrounding locality to the Porur lake nearby and thereby prevent inundation on Porur-Kundrathur Main Road. The drains were widened following the construction of more than half-a-dozen culverts along the road. The localities along the road — Kundrathur, Kovur, Gerugambakkam and Porur — were severely hit by the 2015 floods. Hence, the stormwater drains were widened
Renovated at a cost of ₹7 lakh allocated under MLA Local Area Development funds of Alandur Assembly constituency in 2014, the terminus caters to residents of Kollachery, Arambedu, Erumaiyur, Kavanoor, Kolambakkam, Poonthandalam and Vaipoor. Every day, on an average, more than 120 services are operated from this terminus.
Many commuters prefer to travel to the Kundrathur bus terminus, around 2 km from Kovur, or to th Four Cross Junction, which is around one km away, to board buses as they are frequented by people round-the-clock. Besides, the police booth at the Kovur terminus is closed most of the time, especially at night, point out commuters.
