A year and a half after the Chennai Corporation removed 377 unauthorised bus shelters in the city many have sprung up along various roads again.
The bus shelters have been set up without payment of any licence fee to the Chennai Corporation and are competing with the uniformly designed modern bus shelters being set up by the Corporation.
The persons who have set up unauthorised bus shelters collect money for advertisements on such facilities. Corporation officials said the civic body was losing lakhs of rupees in revenue on account of the illegal bus shelters.
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As hoardings are banned in Chennai, advertisement space on bus shelters is in demand now.
Over 1,150 bus shelters are maintained by the Corporation across the 15 zones of Thiruvottiyur, Manali, Madhavaram, Tondiarpet, Royapuram, Thiru-Vi-Ka-Nagar, Ambattur, Anna Nagar, Teynampet, Kodambakkam, Valasaravakkam, Alandur, Adyar, Perungudi and Sholinganallur.
The civic body has completed work on modernisation of 81 such bus shelters so far.
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Under the project, shelters made of stainless steel are being erected according to the design specifications of the civic body. The work on 1,075 facilities will begin after a tender is settled next month.
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The civic body initiated action against unauthorised bus shelters in 2010 as it found that a private consortium was enjoying advertisement revenue from the bus shelters for more than two years without paying any licence fee to the Corporation or Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) since the issue was under litigation. The case is in the final stage in Supreme Court.
However, MTC Managing Director V. Paul Raj said all the bus shelters, including those earlier managed by the MTC, have already been handed over to the Corporation.
In 2010, as many as 17 unauthorised bus shelters were identified in Tondiarpet Zone, 27 in Basin Bridge, 26 in Pulianthope, 28 in Ayanavaram, 105 in Kilpauk, 21 in Ice House, 42 in Nungambakkam, 42 in Kodambakkam, 41 in Saidapet and 28 in Adyar.
The civic body is yet to collect data on unauthorised bus shelters that have been erected this year. Corporation Commissioner P.W.C. Davidar said all the unauthorised shelters will be removed after the tender for a new set of bus shelters is finalised.