The Transport Department is taking steps to operate nearly 10,750 buses, comprising regular and special buses, to various parts of the States from the city to meet the rush of commuters on the eve of Pongal.
Transport Minister S.S. Sivasankar on Tuesday chaired a meeting with Additional Chief Secretary K. Gopal and the officials of various departments, including Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Kapil Kumar C. Saratkar and the Managing Directors of the eight State Transport Corporations (STCs), wherein it was decided that 10,750 buses would be operated from the five bus termini in the city.
Mr. Sivasankar, giving details of the bus operations for Pongal, said the services would be operated from the Koyambedu, Poonamallee, Madhavaram, K.K. Nagar and Tambaram Sanatorium bus termini for three days from January 12 to 14 and again from January 16 to 18 to help with the return trip.
The Koyambedu bus terminus will handling buses bound for Salem, Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Erode, Pudukottai, Tirunelveli, Velankanni, Madurai, Tiruchi and Kanniyakumari and also to Bengaluru. Of the remaining four bus termini, Madhavaram will handle buses bound to Gummidipoondi and destinations in Andhra Pradesh through the Red Hills route; K.K. Nagar will serve commuters heading to Puducherry, Cuddalore and Chidambaram through East Coast Road; Tambaram Sanatorium will handle buses operated through Tindivanam to Kumbakonam, Thanjavur, Tiruvannamalai, Cuddalore and Kattumannarkoil; and buses heading to Kancheepuram, Vellore, Arani, Arcot and Hosur will start from Poonamallee.
Similarly, for the benefit of the commuters to return to the city, the Transport Department will operate 10,664 buses at the five bus termini. The Transport Department will also set up help desks at 20 important locations at the bus termini, and the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) has been directed to operate round-the-clock buses from Koyambedu to the other four termini.
As the sudden influx of buses will create heavy traffic, the traffic police have advised motorists to avoid taking the Tambaram-Perungulathur stretch of Grand Southern Trunk Road and use the Rajiv Gandhi Salai.
The Southern Railway as part of Pongal will operate special trains from the Dr. MGR Chennai Central and Egmore railway stations. B. Guganesan, Chief Public Relations Officer, Southern Railway, said five pairs of trains had been announced to help passengers heading to Tenkasi and Nagercoil and Ernakulam and Kochuveli in Kerala.
