The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : High footboards make it hard for commuters

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 23, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

High footboards make it hard for commuters

By Sandhya Soman

CHENNAI, FEB. 22. There are 2,754 MTC buses on the city's roads. Many of them are not easy to get into, especially for the aged and disabled, including the 11 new deluxe buses that the Corporation introduced a few days ago on three routes.

The reason: the footboards are 40 cm above ground level, not a comfortable height for the average commuter to board the bus. The height of the footboard turns Thangam Mani, a 55-year-old commuter who had her kneecaps replaced in 1999, jittery .

``Most of the regular buses do not have handrails for support. What happens if the conductor takes off before I can board during rush hour,'' asks Thangam, who says she and her husband Mani can afford to commute from Korattur only by buses.

S.S. Smitha would like to take the bus, provided the footboards are lower and she can get a grip on the rails. Just to avoid falling out. Last year, she fell off a bus when the driver braked suddenly.

``I have multiple sclerosis (a degenerative condition severely affecting mobility). I have not got into a bus after that incident,'' recalls Smitha, an assistant coordinator of Vidyasagar's disability legislation unit.

R. Radha says she has to jump on to footboards of buses that stop in the middle of the road. Quite scary, she says, after her two-year-stint in the U.S where the drivers wait till the passenger gets in to close the door.

The Metropolitan Transport Corporation says lack of money and smooth roads prevent it from introducing more buses with lower footboards.

``There are 10 buses operating for the past one year in the Broadway-Tambaram sector (A18). But the chassis costs around Rs. 14 lakhs against Rs. 7 lakhs of the regular buses.''

Smitha and her unit are still going ahead with their demands to make buses more accessible. Vidyasagar has invited two MTC engineers to the institution on Wednesday to highlight the travails of the disabled and the aged and tackle issues of design as part of a two-day workshop.

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