Residents of hamlets and village panchayats located around Kundrathur want the Metropolitan Transport Corporation to operate more bus services to the central sections of the city, especially Koyambedu, CMBT and Broadway from Kundrathur bus terminus.
Every day, hundreds of commuters from Kundrathur and neighbouring villages including Akkambakkam, Moorasavakkam, Ariyaperumbakkam, Thamal, Ayyanarkulam, Arsur, Kalakattur, Kamarajapuram, Keelapi and Kooram villages, board buses from the terminus in Kundrathur to reach their various parts of the city as well as localities on the outskirts, mainly for work.
The Kundrathur Panchayat Union comprises 40 village panchayats.
The bus terminus in Kundrathur was renovated and opened in February 2004 with funds from the Member of Parliament’s Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) for Sriperambadur Lok Sabha constituency. With a capacity to have at least 35 buses parked on its premises at a time, the bus terminus in Kundrathur is the biggest in the region and commuters prefer heading there to board buses to waiting for buses at the respective bus stops in their villages.
Commuters also head to the Kundrathur bus terminus as they will get to travel sitting.
“More services to key places like CMBT and Broadway should be operated from the terminus,” says G. Amudha, a commuter from Keelapi village near Kundrathur.
Here are a few examples.
At present, only six services are operated on the route number 88M, between Somangalam and Broadway via Kundrathur bus terminus.
Buses operated between Somangalam and Broadway are of an ordinary type and seats in most of them are damaged. Further, the bus is extremely crowded even when it reaches Kundrathur from Somangalam, a distance of around six km, as many commuters from Somangalam board the bus at their village.
Another route number 88K, which being operated between Kundrathur and Broadway, is also crowded.
As a result, some commuters from Kundrathur go to termini in the neighbouring areas of Iyyapanthangal and Poonamallee to board buses to Broadway. Commuters also point out that there aren’t adequate services from the terminus to CMBT, Koyambedu.
Bus route number 16K is being operated between the Kundrathur terminus and CMBT as an ordinary service. The bus to Koyambedu is almost always crowded as it goes through thickly-populated neighbourhoods including Moulivakkam, Porur, Valasaravakkam, Virugambakkam, Vadapalani and MMDA Colony before reaching CMBT. Commuters also seek buses to OMR and ECR region including Thiruvanmiyur and Sholinganallur. At present, commuters from Kundrathur have to go to Tambaram to reach these places.
Currently, MTC officials said that the terminus operates 66 buses with 480 trips every day to various places like Broadway, Tambaram, Vadapalani, Adyar, Somangalam and Porur. Most of these buses halt at the Kundrathur bus terminus before going to their depots in Poonamallee, Iyypanthangal or Tambaram.
Despite its huge space, the terminus has not been fully utilised as much of its space is lost to illegal parking of private vehicles, cabs and motorcycles. It is difficult to for buses coming from other termini to halt inside the terminus and passengers bear the brunt of this problem. As a result, many buses halt outside the terminus making commuters run from one end to another in search of their route buses. “Steps will be taken to increase the frequencies of the existing bus services,” says an MTC official.
